KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 1
KIWAKKUKI /Bernard van Leer Fund Annual Report 2010
List of AcronymsOVC- Orphans and Vulnerable Children
MVC- Most Vulnerable Children
PLHIV- People Living with AIDS
BvLF- Bernard van Leer Foundation
ANNUAL REPORT JAN- DEC 2010Prepared by:
Lui Mfangavo-Programme Officer OVC
Verynice Monyo- Ass. Programme Officer OVC
Stephen Sikumbili-Documenter
Submitted by: Egla Matechi- Acting Executive Coordinator
KIWAKKUKI/BVLF
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 2
Acroynms:
PMCT- Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission
CTC- Centre of Treatment and Care
VCT-Voluntary Counseling and Testing
OVC-Orphans and Vulnerable Children
MVC-Most Vulnerable Children
ECD-Early Childhood Development
WHO- World Health Organization
ICDP –International Child Development Program
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Background Information
1.2 KIWAKKUKI General Achievements for 2010
2.0 Results As Per Objectives for the ECD project
Outcome 1: Stakeholders (leaders and government officials) will understand the
evidenced-based ECD policies, guidelines & budgets (for children and their
caregivers) in the Kilimanjaro region in three districts. (Moshi Urban, Moshi
Rural & Mwanga)
o Output 1.1: Increased use of evidence based ECD advocacy by
stakeholders in three districts of Kilimanjaro region (Moshi Urban,
Moshi Rural and Mwanga) targeting policy and key decision makers
by 2015.
Activity 1.1.1: Conduct ECD sensitization meetings with
communities in 14 wards in Moshi Rural, Moshi Urban and
Mwanga districts to advocate for increase in number of
community-based ECD centers.
Activity 1.1.2: Conduct ECD advocacy meetings with
community leaders (WDCs) in 14 wards in Moshi Rural, Moshi
Urban and Mwanga districts to influence the inclusion of ECD
in local government plans and budgets. (14 in the Wards and 1
in each district equaling 17 meetings.)
Activity 1.1.2: Conduct ECD advocacy meetings with
community leaders (WDCs) in 14 wards in Moshi Rural, Moshi
Urban and Mwanga districts to influence the inclusion of ECD
in local government plans and budgets. (14 in the Wards and 1
in each district equaling 17 meetings.)
Activity: 1.1.3 & 1.1.4: Conduct a Community Assessment of
ECD policy and guidelines at the local level, Ward and District
Level.
Activity 1.1.4 : Conduct baseline survey to the community
regarding existing ECD Policy, gaps from Local to district
levels
o Output 1.2: Increased level of functional ECD resource teams in
three districts of the Kilimanjaro region (Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural &
Mwanga) by 2015.
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 3
Activity 1.2.1: Facilitate the formation of functional ECD
Resource teams in 14 wards and at the three district levels.
(Note Activity 1.2.2 is to be funded as part of the 5 year
plan)
Activity 1.2.3: Support the resource teams to influence ECD
planning, budgeting and implementation from village to district
level. (This includes the possibility of a revolving fund for
loans that was first given to the villages by BvLF in 2009. The
funds were not given in 2010, but the process of the loan
indicated that the funds paid back from 2009 would be used to
fund new loans in 2010)
Activity 1.2.4: Organize biannual review meeting with the 55
child resource teams.
Outcome 2: To Improve economic capacity of families and communities
in Kilimanjaro region in three districts, Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural, and
Mwanga to provide holistic quality care to young children.
o Output 2.1: Families and communities increased their economic
capacity in 14 wards of Moshi Rural, Moshi Urban and Mwanga
Districts.
Activity 2.1.6: Support follow up of economic activities in 55
villages.
Outcomes 3: ECD stakeholders from grassroots to district level will have
improved their knowledge, skills & practices in early care and education
in Kilimanjaro region in the three targeted districts by 2015
o Output 3.1: Increased ECD capacity development programmes
among ECD stakeholders in the three targeted districts of
Kilimanjaro region by 2015. (also refer to Output 3.2)
Activity 3.1.1 (also refer to Output 3.2.4) Conduct annual
awareness raising meetings with parents and caregivers in the
targeted 14 wards regarding proper care for young children so
that they can reach their potential and build on the traditional
practices of ECD knowledge through songs, dances and
language.
Activity 3.1.2: (also refer to Output 3.2) Organize awareness
raising meetings in the targeted 14 wards with pre–primary (5-6
years) teachers, primary teachers, pre-school (3-5 years)
teachers.
Activity 3.1.3: Assist communities to establish 16 ECD centres
and establish a mechanism to assess and monitor them using
ICDP psychosocial meetings
Activity 3.1.4: Conduct training on psychosocial support, HIV
and AIDS, children’s rights and transition to school from
communities in the 14 wards.
Activity 3.1.10: Ensure involvement of men in ECD issues
from local to District levels through meetings/trainings.
Activity 3.1.11 Facilitate provision of integrated services
through special activities such as “ECD CHILD DAY”.
o Output 3.2: Enhanced collaboration with ECD professional
Institutions at local and National level by 2015.
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 4
Activity 3.2.4 (see activity 3.1.4): Collaborate with ICDP
professionals from Norway for capacity development and
reflection of the existing caregivers meetings for Monitoring &
Evaluation
Outcome 4: Improved KIWAKKUKI management and technical ECD
capacity for transitions programme implementation.
o Output 4.1: Increased management capacity of organization in
quality provision of ECD services in Kilimanjaro region by 2015.
Activity 4.1.2: Participate in annual ECD partners Tanzania
meeting including Policy Forum to share experiences, skills,
and challenges in the ECD implementation.
Activity 4.1.3: Purchase one desk top computer, colored printer
and video camera for supporting research and documentation
activities.
Activity 4.1.4: Purchase one project vehicle to support project
implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation.
o Output 4.2: Enhanced M&E skills for Effective management of
ECD data
Activity 4.2.3: Organize quarterly meetings with community
supervisors and resource teams for planning and review project
implementation.
Activity 4.2.4: Conduct regular supportive monitoring visits
Activity 4.2.5: Participate in ECD partners Tanzania to
conduct 3 evaluations-Baseline, mid term evaluation and end of
project evaluation
Annex 1: Informed Consent for photos
Annex 2: Stories, testimonials and Photos
Annex 3: Report from ECD Norway Facilitator
Annex 4: Report from Partner’s Meeting (Will be included in Hard Copy
sent by DHL)
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:1.1: Background Information.
Though the sero-prevalance HIV rates in the Kilimanjaro region appear to be
declining (reports from VCT and antenatal centers) the problems related to Orphans
and Vulnerable Children (OVC) and Most Vulnerable Children (MVC) {as defined
by the World Health Organization} and poverty amongst all families with children are
increasing towards a crisis. Though the role played by the civil society has
contributed greatly to the national efforts, more needs to be done to improve the
health, welfare, and quality of life for these OVCs, MVCs and poor children in the
Kilimanjaro community.
Current statistics of prevalence among Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission
(PMTCT) attendees in Kilimanjaro indicate the following: Rombo: 3.2%, Same:
3.3%, Mwanga: 4.9%, Hai: 3.7%, Moshi Rural: 3.8% and Moshi Urban: 6.1%
resulting in an average of 4.5%. The hospitals in the region recorded an increase in
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 5
the number of patients attending the Clinical Treatment Sites (CTC) services which
reflects a reasonable acceptance of PMTCT and Voluntary Counseling and Testing
(VCT) as an important service.
However, many children have been affected by HIV/AIDS and these numbers are
increasing. Some of them were infected by parents prior to PMTCT. Some have not
been tested, and some mothers have been forbidden to be tested by their husbands
until it is too late to help them. For those who are or are not infected but have lost one
or both parents, or their relatives are forced to support extended family members
because of deaths within the family, their lives are dramatically altered by poverty,
lack of access to basic needs, including food, access to clean water, clothes, and
school fees. When a parent is HIV-infected, these children are burdened with
additional problems such as the need to perform basic household chores that would
ordinarily be reserved for much older children or adults. (Some 5-6 year old children
are reminding parents to take medicine, to cook and clean, and have not been able to
attend school). It is a common occurrence that these young children are now living
with grandparent (s) who are barely able to take care of themselves, and often not able
to work. The reliance on community and donor support is unfortunate but becoming
an increasingly standard experience as the very fabric of family and clan are being
destroyed by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria.
With these problems in mind, KIWAKUKKI designed our work with Bernard van
Leer Foundation (BvLF) for 0-8 year old children, and are now reporting the results
of our efforts.
This report covers the total programme implementation period of January – December
2010 and will focus on the improvement of our services for children ages 0-8 which
include but are not restricted to OVC/MVCs in 14 Wards of three districts of the
Kilimanjaro Region, Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural and Mwanga.
1.2 KIWAKKUKI General Achievements for 2010
The end of year 2006 was a bridging year leading to transformative approaches and
transition towards a new development phase in the life of KIWAKKUKI and all of its
programmes.
The new approaches were inevitable because there were three external evaluations
done by three different partners, each of which had a set of recommendations. These
recommendations were incorporated into the KIWAKKUKI 2007-2011 Strategic
Planning process which was started 2006 and ended in early 2007.
Programme activities went on with a major emphasis on HIV/ AIDS service provision
(with focus on Home Based Care, Memory Work, Psychosocial support and Orphan
Support) but also on empowering communities for sustainable responses to
HIV/AIDS prevention, support, care, gender inequities, and other healthy living
initiatives. (e.g., the International Child Development Programs (ICDP), human
rights, access to clean water, improved nutrition, and health issues such as bed nets
for all children and available access to medical care through dispensaries within the
districts, as defined by the World Health Organization, but tailored to the culture of
the Africa and of the Northern Zone of Tanzania.) KIWAKKUKI has always
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 6
contributed to the Tanzania Vision 2025 1, 3 and 5) and the Millennium Development
Goals 2015 (1, 2, 3 and 6). This also included KIWAKKUKI’s contribution to
implementing poverty reduction policies such as the National Strategy for Growth and
Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) and participating in the micro-credit systems
available in the community (SACCOS). The latter has changed the lives of many
households caring for very young children.
KIWAKKUKI greatly appreciates the contribution of BVLF and other partners and
donors to the work planned for 2010-2011.
2.0 Results As Per Objectives for the ECD project
Broad objective: “Improved access and quality of early care & education for children
of 0 - 8 years of age in 14 wards of Moshi Rural, Moshi Municipality and Mwanga
Districts, Kilimanjaro Region by 2015”
Planned Indicators:
• To document the percentage increase of increases of children accessing quality
care and education in three districts of Kilimanjaro region by 2015.
• To document the percentage increase of children with good nutrition status at
ECD centres.
Planned Outcome 1: Stakeholders (leaders and government officials) will
understand the evidenced-based ECD policies, guidelines & budgets (for
children and their caregivers) in the Kilimanjaro region in three districts.
(Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural & Mwanga)
Planned Indicators:
• The percentage increase of stakeholders in Kilimanjaro region participating in
ECD policy development forum.
• The percentage increase of ECD budget allocations from district to
village/street level.
Planned outputs:
Output 1.1: Increased use of evidence based ECD advocacy by stakeholders in three
districts of Kilimanjaro region (Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural and Mwanga) targeting
policy and key decision makers by 2015.
Planned Indicators:
• The percentages of ECD stakeholders using the available evidence-based
information to influence bylaws/ guidelines/ policies at district to village/
street level;
• Number and type of community leaders involved in community advocacy;
• Community/government leader’s positive perception on ECD integration in
their intervention.
Activity 1.1.1:
• Conduct ECD sensitization meetings with communities in 14 wards in Moshi
Rural, Moshi Urban and Mwanga districts to advocate for increase in number
of community-based ECD centers.
Planned indicator: Number of ECD sensitization meetings conducted.
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 7
What was done:• Held one sensitization and education sessions in each of the fourteen Ward
Levels and one session with each of the three targeted District levels for local
leaders, project supervisors and parents/caregivers regarding National Health
Policies for children; (total of 17 sensitization and education meetings);
• Disseminated information through monthly meetings of caregivers/parents
regarding children’s health information (and adult health information);
• Gave an opportunity in each community village meeting (at each village four
times a year) to sensitize community members on ECD.
Results of the activity:
• Each of the 14 Wards held a community sensitization meeting in Moshi Rural,
Moshi Urban and Mwanga districts to advocate for an increase in number of
community based ECD centers;
• Community members are now knowledgeable on children’s issues, such as
rights (as per WHO and the Tanzanian Law of the Child Act 2009) and needs
especially for young children.
• Through this knowledge a total of 96 playing grounds in three districts were
formed. Each of these grounds has been placed in the hands of the community
to keep secure and available for the children, 27 in Moshi Urban 63 in Moshi
Rural and 6 in Mwanga.
• These caregivers and community members learned through the sensitization
meetings that the Child Law Act gives them the right to advocate for the
promotion protection, and maintenance of the well-being of their children and
their neighbours.
Activity 1.1.2
Conduct ECD advocacy meetings with community leaders (WDCs) in 14 wards in
Moshi Rural, Moshi Urban and Mwanga districts to influence the inclusion of ECD in
local government plans and budgets. (14 in the Wards and 1 in each district equaling
17 meetings.)
Planned indicators: To reach all leaders with ECD Advocacy Meetings at the
Districts and Ward Levels.
What was done:
• There were 98 leaders from the 14 Wards who participated in Advocacy
meetings regarding increased knowledge on the importance of including
children’s issues in their budgets and plans.
Results:
• The Ward leaders agreed to put the planning for their children in their own
annual plan for the Ward;
• A Ward Counselor now attends the District meetings, and as a result of the
sensitization and information, has been able to have a voice in the plan to add
children’s rights and plans into these three District plans;
• Village leaders have agreed to include children’s issues in their village
meetings for sensitizing and planning;
Impact of District Meetings:
• It is obvious that the ability of families to support and prepare young children
for school and better growth and development depends on a number of factors
ranging from socio-economic status of the family to the ability to mitigate
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 8
such hardships. While parents and caregivers are struggling and working very
hard to prepare their young children, they also need additional support to
achieve their goals. This must primarily occur from within the community
and others as appropriate.
• Community members know that their children should attend school, but are
unaware of how to help their children make the most of their education
experience. Parents do not understand how other factors, such as the
importance of health care, maintaining a nutritious and balanced diet, having
access to clean drinking water and having time and location for safe playing
and interacting can influence a child’s performance and concentration at
school. Women are the key in the care for young children that includes
making sure that the socialization for all young children is taking place in a
correct way. Now they are aware that the community is expecting this
education and awareness.
• Although a majority of families reported that they are able to easily access a
variety of services, including health, sanitation, transport, nutritional foods,
etc., poor families still have inadequate or limited access to such resources,
including community services that are necessary to promote and support
children’s development and school readiness.
Activity: 1.1.3 & 1.1.4
Conduct a Community Assessment of ECD policy and guidelines at the local level,
Ward and District Level.
Indicator:All levels participated in the assessment through a base line survey.
What was done:
• Identification of community members who will participate in a needs
assessment training;
• Invitation letters to participants were sent;
• Letters were sent to District Executive Directors of Moshi Urban, Moshi
Rural and Mwanga Districts for permission to conduct the survey;
• 69 community members were trained on the purpose of the survey and
questionnaires were needed to accomplish the survey;
• KIWAKKUKI hired an ECD consultant to accompany them and to
facilitate the training activity and review the district documents with
KIWAKKUKI staff and the other community members;
• This consultant and KIWAKKUKI Staff members collected data regarding
current ECD policies if they were present.
Results:
• Permission letters were available
• Survey tools were ready.
• Survey was started
Conduct baseline survey to the community regarding existing ECD Policy, gaps from
Local to district levels.
Indicator: Existence of baseline data regarding ECD policy gaps
What was done:
This baseline survey has been completed and is now being analyzed.
Results:
• A group of 69 assistant surveyors working together with community
leaders went house to house to complete the surveys;
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 9
• Data was collected in the3Districts about what has been done and where
the gaps are for children’s rights;
• Data analysis has been completed and compiled by the ECD consultant
and the report is attached;
• The report demonstrated that each department in each District has
policies regarding the general population, but not specifically for
children’s rights and treatment. (The social welfare offices do have
certain policies for children, but they are more generally focused.
• The survey report will be used to continue advocacy meetings with the
local and central government leaders.
Output 1.2:
Increased level of functional ECD resource teams in three districts of the Kilimanjaro
region (Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural & Mwanga) by 2015.
Planned Indicators:
• The Number and composition of resource teams actively engaged in policy and
ECD budget process at district and village and street level;
• The increased number of villages and streets for the District’s planning and for
allocating the ECD budget.
Activity 1.2.1
Facilitate the formation of functional ECD Resource teams in 14 wards and at the
three district levels.
Indicator: Existence of ECD resource teams from ward to district level.
What was done:
• KIWAKKUKI ECD staff held one meeting with each village level (55)
and their leaders to establish committees to form functional ECD resource
teams;
• ECD KIWAKKUKI staff facilitated at each meeting regarding the need for
quality education of early learning, nutrition, psychological needs,
vaccinations, violence and abuse against children.
Results of this process:
• 55 functional ECD teams were formed in 14 wards. The teams consisted of
two KIWAKKUKI members, two community facilitators members
fromthe community (2 women and 3 men);
• ECD resource teams were rejuvenated (Government had ordered these to
be started, but they were inactive at the time of the project) in each project
village.
Impact of the service:
• KIWAKKUKI leaders who have been trained in ECD and ICDP have
made monthly visits to the villages and report that the children, focusing
on 0-8 years in these villages are enjoying their rights; (the leaders are
identifying the needy children, locating a safe place to play, protecting
them from abuse, and sensitizing the groups at the meetings about the
importance of birth registration, on going health care, bed nets and
immunizations.
Activity 1.2.3
Support the resource teams to influence ECD planning, budgeting and implementation
from village to district level. (This includes the possibility of a revolving fund for loans
which was first given to the villages by BvLF in 2009. The funds were not given in
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 10
2010, but the process of the loan indicated that the funds paid back from 2009 would
be used to fund new loans in 2010.)
Indicator: The Number of resource teams participated in planning, budgeting and
implementation from village to district level.
What was done:
• Wards meetings were conducted in fourteen wards: Rau, Msaranga, Mwika
North,Marangu East, Old Moshi East, Shimbwe Juu/shimbwe chini and Uru
East,Kighare, Mwanga small town,Majengo,Kaloleni,Kirua West,Kirua
East,Uru east and Kimochi;
• A sensitization meetings washeld in each ward for the existing and new
caregivers on birth registration and each caregiver was encouraged to look for
birth registrations of their children whose ages are 8 and younger years, and to
follow through with the search (dispensary, church, mosque) if these records
could not be found in their home.
Results:
• A children’s committee (made up of members from the sub-village/street were
formed in every village that meets once in a month to discuss issues relating
to childrenswell being.
• The community orphan’s committees involve local leaders and KIWAKKUKI
members who are the decision-makers in planning how to enroll new
caregivers in offering loans (as according to the ward planning). Local leaders
became helpful in the process of allocating loans to the caregivers and writing
supportive letters for the caregivers, thus enabling the local leaders to be the
decision makers and empowering them.
Impact of the service:
• There is now a permanent structure in place that will continue to implement
the ECD work.
Activity 1.2.4
Organize biannual review meeting with the community supervisors(facilitators)
Indicator: Number of meetings organized.
What was done:
• In each district KIWAKKUKI leaders held two meetings which addressed
children’s issues;
• At each meeting there was feedback regarding what was being done at the
village level;
• Each village was asked to incorporate the best practices from the other villages
(sharing with each other what was working).
Results of this process:
• From the feedback, each village was able to incorporate the best practices that
other villages were using; thus they learned from one another;
• Also from this feedback, the village representatives were able to talk about
things that did not succeed; thus, other villages could be warned about trying
unsuccessful ventures out in their own places;
• They also learned how to sensitize the community regarding children’s abuse
(harsh language, beating, raping, etc) and to report these issues to the proper
authorities, and to do this in a village culturally appropriate way;
• Some of these villages were included in the groups of ICDP (Groups of six
people who meet eight times each year). There are three groups that have met
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 11
in each village. Thus a total of 990 persons have been sensitized. These
meetings are sponsored by BvLF.
Impact of the service:
• The village people and leaders are able to see that the approaches that are
being used are actually part of their own culture, and not just “western”
culture;
• They see that these approaches work with their own children and those of
others and that children are happier and healthier;
• They also can use traditional practices of caring for children who have lost
their parents or who do not have both parents present and/or are cared for by
an elderly grandmother or child under the age of 18;
• Young children who are abused are being reported to the authorities, and
interventions specially targeted for each individual child is formulated. The
amount of reported abuse has dropped dramatically.
Outcome 2: To Improve economic capacity of families and communities in
Kilimanjaro region in three districts, Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural, and Mwanga
to provide holistic quality care to young children.
Planned indicators:
• The percentage increase in number of children accessing ECD services in
Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural and Mwanga districts;
• Percentage increase in community resource mobilization for ECD
Output 2.1: Families and communities increased their economic capacity in 14 wards
of Moshi Rural, Moshi Urban and Mwanga Districts.
Planned indicators:
• Number of participating VICOBA (community based banks) based groups
realizing income from IGA.
• Number of participating community members applying adequate
entrepreneurship skills.
Activity 2.1.6
Support follow up of economic activities in 55 villages.
Indicator: Number of support visits conducted by KIWAKKUKI members and trained village
leaders.and community supervisors.
What was done:
• Field visits were organized to families taking care of children 0-8 years to
assess the progress of their projects;
• Local community supervisors were assisted with transport fees that
encouraged them to perform their duty on voluntarily basis;
• Local community supervisors were assisted through the community council
when difficulties were noted during project monthly house to house followups.
Results of this process:
• Through KIWAKKUKI’s process of empowering and supporting these
community supervisors and leaders, about 40% of the wards have begun a
children’s fund;
• The groups have formed by-laws. For instance, if a child is not attending
school, the group leader will contact the parent or caregiver to find out why
the child is not attending school;
• As a result of the transport support, the community supervisors are following
through on their duties and making their regular visits;
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 12
• The community councils are addressing the difficult issues, families and
problems noted by the supervisorswith the council and the family to come to a
satisfactory resolution even if it means some form of punishment.
Impact of the service:
• More children are attending school, even being offered fees in 40% of the
wards. The Community leaders are following through with their promises;
• The By-Laws have remained in tact and the group leader has enforced them in
nearly all cases;
• Transport support has been crucial for the volunteers to have access to the
families, but it is clear that in some way it must be sustained in order to
continue these activities. The village leaders are often as poor as the families
they visit and are unable to pay for this oversight from their own “pockets”;
• The community has agreed to allow the community councils to resolve
difficult issues that arise.
Outcomes 3: ECD stakeholders from grassroots to district level will have
improved their knowledge, skills & practices in early care and education in
Kilimanjaro region in the three-targeted districts by 2015
Planned Indicators;
• The percentage increase of house holds and ECD centres practicing holistic
ECD services;
• The percentage increase in children accessing quality early care and education.
Output 3.1: Increased ECD capacity development programmes among ECD
stakeholders in the three targeted districts of Kilimanjaro region by 2015. (also
refer to Output 3.2)
Planned indicators:
• The percentage of children enrolled in appropriate ECD centres, pre-and lower
primary education;
• The measured increase level of ECD understanding and practicing among
parents/caregivers.
Activity 3.1.1 (also refer to Output 3.2.4)
Conduct annual awareness raising meetings with parents and caregivers in the
targeted 14 wards regarding proper care for young children so that they can reach
their potential and build on the traditional practices of ECD knowledge through songs,
dances and language.
Indicator: Number of awareness meetings conducted and response to the meetings:
What was done:
• There were 55 awareness raising meetings held at village level with
approximately 150 at each group (the groups met 6x in the year);
• The meetings were led by the village leaders and KIWAKKUKI members
were given time to talk about child development and care;
• The participants were the caregivers, parents and other community members
from the Wards and village levels.
Results of this process:
• A total of 24,750 new parents and caregivers were sensitized on ECD
knowledge;
• The parents and caregivers and community members understood and could on
their own describe the need for better child rearing practices;
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 13
• Village leaders have given the opportunity for peer educators to talk to the
group about child rearing and methods;
• Because the meetings were open and public, the attendants were able to accept
that these new practices were actually part of their culture.
Impact of the service:
• Community members reported that child care is a cooperative effort among
the government, other NGO’s, community leaders and parents, it is not the
work of one single person;
• Because of the meetings the community leaders felt the importance to have
by-laws regarding the proper care of children, such as birth registration,
enrollment in school, having places to play, having bed nets, clean drinking
and receiving proper immunizations (vaccinations);
• By having these by-laws, there was now a provision to enforce these
appropriate care measures. If a caregiver or parent was not making sure that
there children attended school, the parent could be brought to the community
council for answering why the children were not registered or attending
school, etc.
• Community leaders set aside places reserved for children to play and
community members, caregivers and parents were empowered to monitor
these places for safety
Activity 3.1.2 (also refer to Output 3.2)
Organize awareness raising meetings in the targeted 14 wards with pre–primary (5-6
years) teachers, primary teachers, pre-school (3-5 years) teachers.
Indicator: Number of awareness meetings conducted.
What was done:
• One meeting was held for all three districts;
• KIWAKKUKI ECD staff facilitated the trainings;
• From Mwanga four teachers (2 in pre-school and 2 in pre-primary teachers)
attended;
• From Moshi Rural sixteen teachers attended (8 in pre-school and 8 in preprimary
teachers);
• 4 wards from Moshi Rural West and 4 wards from Moshi Rural East were
represented;
• From Moshi Urban 8 teachers attended (4 in pre-school and 4 in pre-primary).
Results of this process:
• The teachers who attended the meeting were given much information
regarding care of children, teaching practices that included peace and love
rather than punishment and harsh language;
• The teachers realized that teaching methods such as using traditional, songs,
story telling and role playing, and even traditional cooking can be learning
tools;
• The teachers were taught about what it means to have a “transition” to school
and how to improve this process so that the children would not cry when they
learned that they were starting school;
• The teachers learned about the child needs and rights based on ICDP which
includes the right to play and have a play space;
• The teachers were very attentive to the trainings and felt able to talk to the
trainers giving feedback about their learning processes.
Impact of the service:
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 14
• The teachers now allow “wazee” older KIWAKKUKI members to attend
some classes and teach songs and traditional ways of playing such as making
mud dolls and cars, and toys with banana leaves or grasses, making balls out
of traditional materials even old plastic bags, mud and banana leaves;
• They also allow the wazee KIWAKKUKI members to cook with the children;
and report that the children really enjoy even the cooking;
• They reported that the children are now not afraid to leave their parents and
caregivers because they see children playing and laughing and singing;
• Parents and teachers reported that the children are now seeing school as a
place to enjoy and not a punishment;
• The parents have prepared their children to go to school and now the teachers
are better prepared to receive the children in school, the transition is working
better;
• The teachers reported that this information was very important and not
represented in their teaching manuals. All that was in their manuals was
directives regarding what the children should and should not do, what they
should learn;
• The teachers requested more time (more days) for the trainings and for more
teachers to be able to attend so that they could learn not only about the child
rights but also more about how to make the teaching environment friendly;
Activity 3.1.3
Assist communities to establish 16 ECD centres and establish a mechanism to assess
and monitor them using ICDP psychosocial meetings.
Indicator: Number of ECD centres established under the collaboration with
communities.
What was done:
• KIWAKKUKI staff assisted the communities to establish 59 playing grounds
(each village had at least one, and a few villages had more than one);
• The playing grounds are either near or next to their homes
• The Community and KIWAKKUKI staff created a check-list to make sure that
the centers and playing grounds were being used properly and according to the
principles from the ICDP psychosocial meetings.
Results of this process:
• Parents and Community members follow the check-list and did monitor the
areas making sure that the children were safe and secure;
Impact of the service:
• Community members, caregivers and parents reported that the children were
using the playing grounds and enjoying them;
• Caregivers and parents reported that the children were happier and behaved
better at home because they were given places to play;
• Children were being treated better by the community as they had been trained
to love and support the children and not use harsh language or abuse to make
them obey.
Activity 3.1.4
Conduct training on psychosocial support, HIV and AIDS, children’s rights and
transition to school from communities in the 14 wards.
Indicator: Number of facilitators, caregivers and parents trained on psychosocial
support, HIV and AIDS, Child rights and transition to school.
What was done:
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 15
• An ECD trained facilitator from Norway was sponsored by BvLF to assist the
ECD KIWAKKUKI staff to conduct the psychosocial refresher course to 42
participants. (BvLF supported her transportation and air fare, the facilitator
provided her own support for hotel and food. This facilitator is well known to
KIWAKKUKI and dedicated to KIWAKKUKI’s work.);
• These participants were divided into groups of six to discuss the issues of
psychosocial support, HIV and AIDS prevention and care, and what children’s
rights are, especially in relationship to their transition to school from their
homes and community;
• Each group made lists from the group process regarding these issues;
• Each group discussed what they felt were best practices in child rearing;
• A reporter from each group reported to the total number what they had
discussed and what they thought the most important points were.
Results of this process:
• When the groups came back together, they reported that young children need
more nutritious food, such as fresh fruits and vegetables and not sodas so that
the brain can grow well;
• Children need to receive the vaccinations that are important for them;
• All children need to have birth registrations, and mechanisms need to be put in
place for communities and villages to know that each child has been registered
particularly for those children eight years and under;
• Young Children need to receive love and attention and be listened to rather
than being shouted at and beaten;
• Children need to have safe water so that they don’t have diseases related to
bad drinking water, water too close to sewers or standing water;
• Children need to sleep under bed nets. For children, malaria and other fevers
are much more severe than they are for adults. A child can die within 48
hours. Thus, the importance of bed nets for children was accepted as a strong
need.
• The Government is providing free mosquito nets and the community
supervisors are making sure that every child in her village has acquire one.
Impact of the service:
• The participants put together a strategy for their return to their villages
whereby there would be a mechanism to report caregivers and parents for
children who were being abused, raped, beaten or having harsh language;
• They also put a strategy together for having safe drinking water, better
nutrition, immunizations, for children to sleep under mosquito nets, and
children to be taken to centers or pre-schools.
Activity 3.1.10
Ensure involvement of men in ECD issues from local to District levels through
meetings/trainings.
Indicator: Number of men involved in ECD issues
What was done:
• There had been very few men involved in the ECD process in the past. The
goal was set that by 2015, there would be a participation of 50% women and
50% men;
• Local leaders recruited men to be involved in the ICDP meetings;
• Wives recruited their husbands to participate in the ICDP meetings;
Results of this process:
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 16
• In all districts, there are now 20-25% men participating in the ICDP meetings.
• Some communities are doing better than others in the recruitment, but all have
been recruiting men.
Impact of the service:
• Men shared that previously, they had thought that only women were wanted in
the groups and that only women were responsible for raising the children;
• The men reported that they now felt that they could participate in the raising
of their children;
• The men stated that they would recruit other men to participate in the ECD
meetings and use the ICDP principles;
• Other men are now requesting to join and some of them are actually
performing better than some of the women. (Perhaps this is because they
really had to start from “scratch” and sincerely made the effort to look deeply
at their behavior to change it.)
Activity 3.1.1
Facilitate provision of integrated services through special activities such as “ECD
CHILD DAY”.
Indicator: Number of children participated in special events
What was done:
• The day was chosen as the celebration of “African Child Day” and set in
Moshi Urban;
• This day was chosen because across Africa June 16th is dedicated as “African
Child Day” and it was known that many leaders would attend this celebration
which would make it the perfect opportunity to add in ECD child day;
• Peer Educators were selected to present;
• There was a meeting with school teachers so that they could prepare with the
children for the day;
• The children prepared songs, poems and role plays and doing a short play;
• They prepared a presentation for the guest of honor;
• Six hundred children were invited for the day;
• District Directors, District Commissioner, District Education Officer, District
Medical Officer, District Community Development Officer, District Health
Officer, and other District officers were invited;
• There was an announcement through the streets of Moshi Urban to welcome
all community members to attend.
Results of this process:
• About 600 children attended;
• Most District Officers attended, only a few sent their assistants but
representation was 100%;
• The Guest of Honor was the District Commissioner;
• Many people in the community saw the large crowd and joined in;
• The children had been prepared and gave the entertainment of songs and
poems and role plays were message laden with words and activities
demonstrating that adults and parents needed to change the way they were
dealing with young children;
• There was a peer educator who spoke to the District Commissioner about the
issues of child rights and the rules of ECD;
Impact of the service:
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 17
• Many community members were impressed that the children were brave and
willing to speak out about the rights of children. Some of these were people
who had not heard about the “Africa Child Day” but in passing had seen the
crowd and attended;
• The District Commissioner promised that he would work with all the
municipal departments on the requests that the children made and stated that
he had heard the children and understood what they were asking.
• He also stated that the children were well prepared and that he was impressed
that they felt empowered to speak to him directly;
• The children also got something back from the occasion. They were proud
that they were listened to, they were proud of their presentations; they were
pleased that they had worked hard and were prepared to give the presentations,
and they and their teachers felt that a great deal had been accomplished on that
day through their hard work.
• The children thanked Tanzania and all of Africa for setting aside this day
particularly for them, so that they had the opportunity to present their songs
and poems and to be listened to. This was perhaps the first time that they
spoke directly about children’s needs and rights because of the ECD trainings
and the ICDP principles that had been worked on throughout the year. They
were grateful to BvLF for providing them with the opportunities to improve
their condition;
• Pictures will be attached to this report and a video is being sent through mail.
Output 3.2: Enhanced collaboration with ECD professional Institutions at local
and National level by 2015.
Planned indicators:
• Number of ECD professional Institutions effectively collaborating with
organization
• Number of events jointly implemented with professional institutions.
Activity 3.2.4 (see activity 3.1.4)
Collaborate with ICDP professionals from Norway for capacity development and
reflection of the existing caregivers meetings for Monitoring & Evaluation
Indicator:
How many people attended the refresher training for ECD and what did the site visits
show for the monitoring and evaluation.
What was done:
• The ECD Facilitator returned from Norway with sponsorship in part through
BvLF (airfare and transport to the sites, she paid her own hotel and food costs
because of her long standing relationship on psychosocial issues with
KIWAKKUKI);
• This facilitator and the KIWAKKUKI ECD staff attended the one week
training on site and one week monitoring and evaluation in the field;
• The Staff and Facilitator checked on two sites to evaluate how they were
doing in their ICDP programs;
• The week long training was attended by 42 people;
Results of this process:
• The facilitators attending the refresher continued to train other peers in their
communities with the information that they took from the training;
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 18
• These facilitators were also trained in how to follow-up with the monitoring
and evaluation in the project areas (the three Districts, 14 Wards);
• The site visits in the field showed that things in the two sites were going well;
o The women were working conscientiously;
o The children were playing happily;
o The women demonstrated what they had been doing at their sites;
o She visited a home based ECD Center and found that all things had
improved from what had been previously reported;
• The Norwegian Facilitator wrote a report which is attached on the progress of
ECD in the targeted area.
Impact of the service:
• The people who were in the week long training pledged to return to their
villages and train others. They were empowered by the training;
• Because the training was “adult learning based”, in other words that they
worked together in groups to come up with their own concepts, they felt
ownership in the process and it become more of their own culture;
• The refresher training allowed the trainers to incorporate what they had
learned and to present it to the community as the community plan;
• Because there was inclusion of the “old ways, old songs, stories and food” the
ICDP and ECD was not just “the western way” but accepted as their own;
• The visits to the sites pleased those local women because they were able to
demonstrate what they had learned about ECD, and the children showed that
they were happy. Again, it was clear that these concepts had been
incorporated into the culture of the villages that were targeted.
Outcome 4: Improved KIWAKKUKI management and technical ECD capacity
for transitions programme implementation
Planned indicators:
• Increase in quality document and project reports (Results oriented report,
documented success stories and best practices);
• The percentage increase in resources mobilized for ECD interventions.
Output 4.1: Increased management capacity of organization in quality provision
of ECD services in Kilimanjaro region by 2015
Planned indicators:
• The percentages of ECD services and coverage in participating districts.
• Presence of staff with adequate capacity in documentation, research and data
analysis.
Activity 4.1.2
Participate in annual ECD partners Tanzania meeting including Policy Forum to share
experiences, skills, challenges in the ECD implementation.
Indicator: Number of ECD partners meetings that KIWAKKUKI staff participated in
What was done:
• In the past we had attended meetings with each partner’s groups four
meetings/year;
• In 2010, we attended one meeting in Mwanza. (The funding was for one
meeting to share the work we have doing for one year and way forward for the
partnership.
Results of this process:
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 19
• The partners total six. TAHEA in Mwanza, MPDI in Arusha, KIWAKKUKI
in Kilimanjaro, KINAPA in Manyara, Amani ECD in Dar Es Salaam and
SAWA in Morogoro;
• The total number attending was 10 because KINAPA was unable to attend;
• Each of the partners shared what had been done, achievements and challenges
in their areas;
• The way forward towards 2015 was designed and agreed upon. The report
was written and sent to BvLF.
Impact of the service:
• Each partner now knows what has happened with the others; for instance, the
KIWAKKUKI partners shared about the trainings, the refresher training, the
empowerment of the communities, ECD Child Day, the efforts to attract more
men, the peer education within the villages, and empowerment of the people
to meet with the village leaders, how we are now working with the
government leaders to adopt child development policies, how we have secured
playing grounds targeted communities, and how we gave teachers additional
training particularly focused on ECD/ICDP principles of child development.
KIWAKKUKI also shared with them the responses of the various groups and
how appreciative they were for these trainings and meetings;
• Attached will be the report from the meeting;
• The partners are struggling to plan the “way forward” if we should not receive
additional funding from donors because we realize that there is still much to
be done, and many other communities that we will not have reached by 2015
as many are not in the targeted areas. Kilimanjaro, for instance, is a vast
region with great differences in each district.
Activity 4.1.3
Purchase one desk top computer, colored printer and video camera for supporting
research and documentation activities.
Indicator: Number and types equipments purchased
What was done:
• A desk top computer was purchased;
• A printer was purchased;
• The camera is being researched for the best buy for the remaining money and
will be purchased in the near future. In the meantime, another camera has
been used to document the activities and the videos are available.
Results of this process:
• The desk top and printer are huge aids in documenting the activities that have
been completed;
• Both are also used to make the plans for the villages to have;
• They have been very helpful in maintaining the budget, what has been spent
and what not;
• And all activities of the local projects are documented.
Impact of the service:
• The equipment has improved the quality and quantity of services. It has
allowed for better time management, and lowered stress levels with the two
project people;
• The video camera is expected to be able to document activities to last for other
generations and to be able to demonstrate all over the region what can be
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 20
done. Already, people from other districts are requesting the ECD training
because of pictures, videos and word of mouth of what they have seen.
Activity 4.1.4
Purchase one project vehicle to support project implementation, Monitoring and
Evaluation.
Indicator: Availability of project vehicle
What was done:
• A dark blue Hiace (Toyota) was purchased;
• This vehicle was researched well for its brands maintenance history;
• The vehicle has space for up to ten people.
Results of this process:
• The van transports teams of people to and from the KIWAKKUKI base office
and the villages;
• The van is capable of transporting people to the communitiesk
• The van is capable of transporting people to different sites for inspection.
Impact of the service:
• The van has been a great asset to KIWAKKUKI’s work in the three districts;
• Because of its capacity and good records, it can travel to the rural areas with
no difficulty, can maneuver in rainy season, and is able to manage poor roads
in the area. Most especially, the van is very good in Moshi Rural and getting
to and from Mwanga.
Output 4.2:
Enhanced M&E skills for Effective management of ECD data
Planned indicators:
• Existence of readily ECD data and other relevant planning information
• Level of utilization of M & E data in planning and implementation within and
outside of the organization.
Activity 4.2.3
Organize quarterly meetings with community supervisors and resource teams for
planning and review project implementation.
Indicator: Number of quarterly meetings organized.
What was done:
• Wards meetings were conducted in all 14 targeted wards namely Rau,
Msaranga, Mwika North, Marangu East, Old Moshi East, Shimbwe , Uru East;
Kirua West, Kirua South, Kighare, Mwanga town, Majengo, Kaloleni,
Kimochi (total of 56 meetings;)
• Held sensitization meetings to the existing and new caregivers on birth
registration and encouraged them to look for the birth registration for each of
their children whose ages are less than or equal to 8 years (four meetings for
each ward total of 56).
Results:
• The quarterly meetings were an opportunity to share challenges, give reports
on the activities of the ECD work, give case studies, talk about achievements;
• There are now 14 children’s committees. The members are from each village
/street in thewards
• The childrens’ committees meet once a month to discuss issues relating to
children’s wellbeing as agreed .
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 21
• These community children’s committees involve local leaders and
KIWAKKUKI members and they sit and make decisions on how to enroll new
caregivers according to loans which had been given to a limited number of
people in 2009. Because no new money for loans was given in 2010, the new
enrollees can only be offered loans if the money has been repaid within the
ward. (see discussion of loans below);
• Local leaders became helpful in the process of allocating caregivers and
writing supportive letters for those who are believed to have the biggest need
and best potential to be successful.
Impact of the service:
• At the village level now many issues regarding children are addressed with
these committees. (It is impossible to get through all the issues);
• Some of the issues are birth registrations, enrollment of children in schools,
maintaining the playing grounds, & refreshing parents and teachers on the
rights of children in the ECD model;
• When the leaders in the children’s committees learn of problems within
households at village levels, especially with those who received loans in 2009
and have failed to pay them back, they are reviewed to see what can be done;
• For those who have paid the loans back, the impact has been pride in
successful IGA, and being able to support their children as well as to see that
others are benefiting from loans;
• Over the two years, there has been evaluation of which projects seem to be
more successful than others. For the farming projects, problems such as rains,
no available market, (Kiboroloni being moved) common diseases of some of
the animals, and sickness within the family and inability to care for the
business has shown that new loans need to be careful thought through if they
are to be involved with farming;
• Better farming practices such as sack farming can save water and improve
outcomes for vegetables;
• The children’s committees are paying more attention to safe drinking water,
and mosquito nets.. The villages are much more accepting of the focus being
on all children, and accepting of these children’s committees because they are
seen as local. This helps a great deal for the villages to feel ownership of the
projects and pride in the village;
• With the mosquito nets, the government provided free nets for all people in
the districts with children under five. This year the government states that
they will give free nets to all families with children.
Activity 4.2.4
Conduct regular supportive monitoring visits
Indicator: Number of supportive monitoring visits conducted.
What was done:
• Each District Coordinator is required to bring quarterly reports from their
District. This is a KIWAKKUKI requirement for all 7 Districts. In these
reports are documentation of problems and issues for all of their reporting
areas.
• In the targeted location, if special attention is paid to success and to problems.
• If problems are reported in the target area, a plan is made with the district
coordinator for a response, though some regular visit is made once a quarter,
more visits occur when a problem is reported.
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 22
Results of this process:
• It is easy to identify projects that are not doing well and support the person
with ideas of how to go on with the project or to change the project because of
these quarterly reports.
• The recipient of the project is asked to make his or her own list of possible
projects if one is failing. (an example of this might be someone who has
chickens and they are being killed by a neighbor, they become old and don’t
produce, or they die from disease.) They would then be asked to make a list
of other possible projects;
• From these reports also, KIWAKKUKI staff can identify things that are going
well and visit and make sure that these projects are known by other villagers
so that they might model their own projects on successful projects;
• Numbers of children who have been birth registered, enrolled in school, and
have bed nets are noted by these reports so that weaknesses with these
children can be addressed with parents and teachers;
• 12 regular visits have been made to the three targeted districts. An additional
4 visits to each of these three targeted districts were made in 2010 (total 12) to
address problems that have occurred within some of the 14 wards.
Impact of the service:
• Because the targeted areas are very poor, all the children’s problems cannot be
solved with one visit or even many visits; however, we can see the changes
that have occurred due to the oversight of this project;
Activity 4.2.5
Participate in ECD partners Tanzania to conduct 3 evaluations-Baseline, mid term
evaluation and end of project evaluation.
Indicator: Number and type of evaluation conducted
What Was Done:
• One meeting has been held in Mwanza where a two-year plan was discussed;
(First December-Fourth December)
• ECD Strategic Plan and funding opportunities was discussed;
• Funding opportunities beyond BVLF was discussed;
• ECD partners sustainability.
• Way forward for the ECD Partners was discussed.
Results:
• Strategies to sustain the partnership were agreed upon;
• Will find new funding sources and ways to work together;
• Some will be with new donors interested in helping with children.
Impact:
• KIWAKKUKI has a long history of collaborating with other projects
throughout the Northern Zone of Tanzania. An example of this was the Life
& Living project (Kenya and Africa) that was sponsored in collaboration with
the Spanish government. KIWAKKUKI was selected as the lead agency for
the other groups, and successfully coordinated the activities throughout the
selected target areas until the Spanish economic woes forced a precipitous end
to the renewal of the project. (report available upon request)
• KIWAKKUKI because of its regional memberships and strong leaders
recognizes that in order for the Northern Zone to make differences for children
and their caregivers, such that all children are served, that it maintain good
relationships with the government and has many collaborations within the
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 23
local and regional government. As noted, the Regional Commissioner has
attended many meetings as special guests, and the Regional and District
Government officials with Health, Education, and Medical Offices have
attended these meetings that highlight the work of KIWAKKUKI throughout
the region.
• KIWAKKUKI is dedicated to collaborating with the other BvLF projects
some of which have not received funding this year, because together they
serve the needs of the caregivers and children and many strides have been
made that require oversight and support. Without this perceived support, the
projects may fail due to discouragement and the feeling that no one recognizes
their problems and needs.
• KIWAKKUKI will continue to develop and collaborate on a plan looking at
other means of support as well as continued relationships with BvLF.
Annex 1: A sample consent form
KIWAKKUKI recognizes that increasingly privacy issues and informed
consents for publication of stories must be obtained from caregivers for
themselves and their children. Sample Informed Consent is written below and
sees attachment # 4
I _______________(name) give my permission to have my picture, name and
story as well as my children or those orphans who are in my care, to the
Bernard van Leer Foundation (BVLF) and KIWAKKUKI for their use in reports
and publicity for the program.
Signed: ______________________________
Witnessed:____________________________
Note: If Caregiver is unable to sign his or her name, an X may be used as
long as it is witnessed by someone other than the monitor.
Annex 2:
A CASE STORY From MOSHI RURAL EAST
A case story on ICDP that was brought to KIWAKKUKI by one of our
parents/caregivers who was given an education on ICDP The case story is as
follows :
I, Anna Kimaro(not her real name), live in a Moshi Rural Ward that has
been helped by the KIWAKKUKI ECD project. I want to express my gratitude for
being able to receive the education that I received on ICDP.
I am the mother of three daughters. One of my daughters had a habit of
leaving the house without any notification. When she returned, she brought gifts,
clothes and money. This behavior made me angry and frightened and I punished
(beat and yelled) her harshly several times without seeing any changes.
When the facilitators from ICDP visited my home and I explained the
situation concerning my daughter, they invited me to attend the ICDP training. At
first it was difficult for me to understand what these concepts were but slowly I
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 24
began to understand them. I really started working on them, most especially on
the 8th guideline principle which is “let a child control himself /herself by
monitoring the scope of his/her behavior. This can provide better direction for
him/her. At the same time, the parent can get involved in planning his/ her
activities in a well mannered way together.” Since that day I have been able to
control my anger and win my daughter’s love and respect.
I talked with her and she told me her problem. She told me she was not
happy seeing her fellow girls wearing nice clothes, having cellular phones and
cosmetics which she did not have. Also she said she is in the group of four girls
and all of them except for her have boyfriends who have big shops from where
they get all the things they want.
The ICDP volunteers helped me and we told my daughter together what
our real life situation was and that our family was completely dependant on our
small level of income. These volunteers helped me by providing her with small
necessities. I was advised by to educate her, both with a trade and with the facts
about the dangers of HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and possible abuse
from these men. I took her to a Vocational training center where she is now
studying tailoring. Due to this training and the interest she has in being
independent, she is now dedicating most of her time to learning rather than
roaming around the streets with the other girls and “fast boys.” She understands
the “facts of life” and is much more settled and mature.
Strategies and way forward :
1. Helping my daughter set an example for the other girls who are older;
2. Visiting with the mothers/caregivers of these girls to help them see the
dangers of their girls behaviors;
3. Following up on her other three friends and make sure they are change
their behaviors;
4. Requesting the other parents/caregivers to learn about ICDP, and to tell
other parents/caregivers about it;
5. Helping my daughter to set an example for my younger daughters who are
in primary and pre-primary so that they will understand the right way to
behave;
6. Explaining the other parents that very young children can benefit from
ICDP especially those 8 years and younger.
I would like to thank KIWAKKUKI for the trainings I got from I.C.D.P.
A CASE STUDY FROM MOSHI URBAN:
A CASE STORY OF MR.ANDREW ABRAHAM (not his real name), A
PARENT, BEFORE AND AFTER ATTAINING EDUCATION OF ICDP ON
27TH APRIL 2010.
I, Edward Abraham (not his real name), am married to Aisha Omari (not her real
name). We have blessed with three children, two girls and one boy.
I used to be very harsh towards my children. Whenever they did something wrong, I
used to beat them badly. I believed that according to Africans custom and traditions “
beating a child is the only way to get a child to respect his/her parents.” These beatings
made them very afraid of me and hate me. My first daughter Ashura (not real name) was
studying at Moshi Technical School. Because I was so rude and harsh to her, she decided
to run away from home, stop going to school and moved in with a man. They went far
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 25
away and after a long time my daughter came back home. Unfortunately, my daughter
had become infected with HIV from the man who had already died from AIDS.
My second born is now married and lives in Dar-Es-Salaam. Though I was harsh
to her, she managed to put up with me and was able to study up to form four at Kibo
Secondary School (a boarding school, so she was frequently away from home).
My lastborn Omari (not his real name) is now in form three at Majengo Secondary
School and is doing very well.
Since being invited to ICDP education, I have learned that I should not have
blamed my wife for not raising my children well, but myself. It was my behavior that
caused them to hate me and to be afraid, and run away. I was actually being rude,
harsh, beating them, and misunderstanding the extent of “African culture” on raising
children.
The education I got from ICDP has helped my family and me, especially my
children. I have learned that beating a child is not the proper way to discipline a child,
rather I have learned to be loving, caring and understanding to my children, like I
never was before. I grieve over the illness of my daughter but am determined that she
will receive medical care and medicine when she needs it, and we will go on with our
lives. My other children are benefiting from my education and I can now be loving
and caring for them and for my wife who really had a hard time before she helped me
to get this ICDP training.
I have now joined with others to be a model for ICDP and to watch out for the
very young children and their caregivers who need guidance about how to raise
children in a kind and loving way.
Lastly I would like to thank KIWAKKUKI. I pray that they will be able to
continue to educate others for a better society.
A CASE STUDY FROM MOSHI URBAN
A CASE STORY FROM MAKANGE VILLAGE
This is the case story from ICDP brought to KIWAKKUKI by one of our facilitators
who got education from ICDP. The case is as follows:
I Mary Mjau (not real name) of Majengo ward; I give my sincere appreciation
and thanks to ICDP for the education I got and how it changed my son’s and my life
(David). My son and I never got along well because I have been a very high, quicktempered
parent who never listed or heard anything that he was saying. As life
between us continued in this way, David became a child who never listened to me.
He stopped going to school and started to behave badly and hang out with bad
company. He even began to steal things at home and from our neighbors. The
situation got worse and I started beating him to the point that I once threatened to
break his legs. That experience overwhelmed me and I decided to leave him alone.
But, then, I heard of the ICDP. I took a step and told the ICDP volunteers
about my situation. They sat and talked to both my son and me and helped us
together to resolve our differences. From the education we got from the ICDP, life
for my son and me has been peaceful. Now we sit and talk, we listen to each other
and respect one another. My son is now going to school, has stopped hanging out
with the “bad crowd” and is doing well and my temper has begun to cool down. I
also feel less stress.
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 26
This was a lifesaver for both my son and me. I am able now to talk to others
who have even young children about principles of ICDP and Early Childhood
Development. I wish I had been able to start with my child at a very young age. Now
I do understand things better.
Kilaweni Village—Mwanga District
Our caregiver from Kilaweni village reported, “Thank you for
KIWAKKUKI”. My child was coming home late from school. He had friends who
were going to disco houses and he wanted to go, too. The other children’s parents
were not asking their children why they were late coming home. It was not easy for
me to also ask my child why he was late. In fact, I was just angry. After the
sensitization meetings, I learned how to talk to my child in a way in which he could
listen and answer me. But, I also learned that I was so harsh to my children that they
were no longer listening to me. With the trainings, I was able to change my attitude
towards my son and the others and be close to them. I asked him positive questions
that showed him that even though he was coming home late, he is my son and I love
him. After building a better relationship with him, I explained the reasons that I was
angry with him for coming home late, that I was worried because so many terrible
things could happen to him when he is out late, and these things interfere with school
and his future.
Since the sensitization, my son has changed his behavior and is coming
straight home from school. We have together made a plan that he will rest, do
homework, small household activities and go to sleep. His friends are asking him
why he is not going to the disco anymore, and he said, “I am building for my future”.
He has influenced one of his friends not to go to the disco either and they are now
studying together. Even other community members are asking me, “What did you do
to change your son so well?” I reply to them, that I had the help of the ICDP worker,
and have learned that I could even start with them at the very young age of two or
three to give love and share. In this way, my children would have gotten off to the
“best start”. Now I am ready to help other young mothers and their children.
I could not have done this without the help of KIWAKKUKI’s ICDP
sensitization and program.
Pictures from ECD Training Meetings:
A. ECD District Level Meetings:
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 27
Above, Verynice Monyo encourages groups on as they work.
Below, KIWAKKUKI ECD staff person Lui Mfangavo assists in group process.
BvLF funded Car
BvLF funded computer and printer
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 28
ICDP Training of Trainers:
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 29
Children perform traditional dances and dress up according to old ways.
Quarterly Monitering and Evaluation ECD Partnership Groups
Here the
KIWAKKUKI
trainers stand
with Greta
Flakk, ECD
facilitator from
Norway.
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 30
Mshiri ICDP Group
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 31
Nursery School supported by KIWAKKUKI in Kirua
ECD trained Caregiver and Nursery Teacher Verynice Monyo and nursery children
Mary and Lucy
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 32
Nursery School Children singing and singing Kwaheri
Annex 3: Report Kiwakkuki visit the 6th – 19th of March 2010
Grete Flakk, ICDP consultant, Norway
Background
The ICDP (International Child Development Programme) work in Moshi has been
going on since July 2004, when the first psychosocial training concerning children’s
situation and welfare took place. The training was initiated by Mai Bente Snipstad at
the University of Bergen, Norway, as a result from her research regarding the
situation for vulnerable children and youth in the Kilimanjaro region. The seminar
was collaboration between the University of Bergen and KIWAKKUKI. 20
KIWAKKUKI staff and volunteers participated in the training that altogether lasted
for seven weeks at a period of two years. By the end, the 20 participants were certified
as ICDP facilitators. 12 of the facilitators continued the training and were trained to
the level of trainers, certified in March 2009. Grete Flakk was responsible for the
ICDP part of the training in collaboration with Mai Bente Snips tad.
The local trainers have been training a group of new facilitators. There are now 65
certified facilitators and 12 certified trainers in the Kilimanjaro region. 28 new
facilitator candidates were trained during this visit.
Visit activities
The purpose of the visit was to follow up the ICDP Programme conducted by the
local ICDP trainers: support and assist their work and monitor the quality of
implementation of the programme.
Schedule for the visit:
7th of March: Meeting with Lui Mfangavo and Verynice Monyo in order to plan the
visit more in detail, especially the content of the ICDP facilitator seminar
8th – 11th of March: Facilitator seminar
9th of March: Meeting in Moshi with the founder Chanel Croker and the Director
Fizza Moloo from Amani ECD, Dar Es Salaam
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 33
12th of March: Work at Kiwakkuki office; planning field visits etc.
15th of March: Network meeting with facilitators and trainers in Moshi municipal and
field visit to a caregivers’ group in one of the four wards
16th of March: Network meeting with facilitators and trainers in Moshi rural west and
field visit to a caregivers’ group in a village in one of the four wards
17th of March: Network meeting with facilitators and trainer in Mwanga district and
visit to a caregivers’ group in Usangi village
18th of March: Network meeting with facilitators and trainers in Moshi rural east,
Marango, and visit to a caregivers’ group in Mshiri village
19th of March: Work at Kiwakkuki office; meetings with Lui Mfangavo and Verynice
Monyo in order to sum up the visit and give suggestions for future work. Meeting
with Karen O’Donnell, Duke University, and Shannon Dorsey, University of
Washington, USA, in order to discuss the ICDP Programme and a new project
concerning trauma treatment for children and adolescents, CBT.
ICDP facilitator seminar
28 volunteers from the districts Moshi municiplal, Moshi rural west, Moshi rural east
and Mwanga were given a four day training in ICDP the 8th – 11th of March. The
seminar was conducted by the local trainers Lui Mfangavo, Verynice Monyo and Egla
Matechi and followed the usual agenda for facilitator seminars; covering topics as
child rearing in the region before and now, the caregiver’s concept of the child, three
dialogues and eight guidelines for good interaction, 7 principles for sensitization,
principles for implementation and preparation for field work (self-training project).
The seminar was conducted in a participatory way, and the participants were very
active during the seminar. During the seminar the participants expressed that they
gained lots of new knowledge, and some of them expressed that the programme also
changed their personal lives during these days.
Two Norwegian students followed the seminar as part of their practice at Kiwakkuki
office.
Network meetings in the districts
During the visit network meetings were conducted in the four districts Moshi
municipal, Moshi rural west, Moshi rural east and Mwanga. The purpose of the
meetings was to link the new 28 facilitator candidates with the experienced 65
facilitators in the districts, exchange of experiences and planning of new activities
together. The meeting in Moshi municipal was conducted by Lui Mfangavo, assisted
by the trainers in the district, Violet Kessy and Durriyah Akber. The meeting in
Moshi rural west was conducted by Vernice Monyo, assisted by the local trainers
Shirikiande B. Moshi, Mary Lyatuu and Scolastica Mbuya. The meeting in Moshi
rural east was conducted by Vernice Monyo assisted by the local trainer Vicky Temu,
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 34
and the meeting in Mwanga was conducted by Verynice Monyo assisted by the local
trainer Rose Matay.
In all the districts the experienced facilitators shared their achievements and
challenges with the programme with the new facilitator candidates, and they all
shared the impact of the programme in their personal lives. The stories about the
achievements are amazing, showing great changes, both with respect to caregivers’
attitudes and behavior towards the children and children’s behavior. The reports show
in short that the caregivers now treat the children in a much more human way, and the
children are more cooperative. The caregivers have seen the value of coming close to
the children, and they put emphasize on the importance of having a safe and
transparent atmosphere in the family, were the children can come and discuss their
problems with their caregivers. There are lots of reports of decrease in using the stick,
as this is the usual way of punishing and guiding the children.
Other achievements that were reported were related to decrease in family conflicts in
general, in domestic violence and in alcohol abuse. The gender issue was also often
discussed during the meetings, and the facilitators report that this programme
contributes to equality between husband and wife. More and more men participate in
the caregivers’ groups, and they realize the importance of being an active part of the
children’s lives. One reason for this development might be that whenever the
facilitators plan to conduct a new group, they approach the village leaders and the
ward leaders to ask for permission and for help to identify caregivers for the group.
The leaders are mostly men, and when they give their permission, they also often
decide to participate in the groups themselves. During my field visits I met several
leaders as participants in the caregivers’ groups, and they were all very dedicated to
the ICDP work and told about great changes in their own lives.
For more detailed reports about achievements, see the appendix with quotes from
facilitators and caregivers.
The challenges the facilitators reported were
• Logistics (large districts and poor public transport)
• Change in attitudes and behavior sometimes take time…
• Expectations from the caregivers to be paid in order to attend to the groups
• Caregivers bringing huge family problems to the group
• How to act when you see a neighbor treating her child badly
• The importance of being a good model as a facilitator
• How to help children directly when their caregivers do not change – the
problem of teaching the children their rights and thus create conflicts in the
family
• Conflicts among caregivers in the group
• How to recruit more men to the groups
The challenges were discussed, and solutions were shared among the participants.
Part of the meetings was used to go through the eight meetings agenda for the
caregivers’ groups. In some of the districts there also was a need to repeat some of the
guidelines or the principles of sensitization.
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 35
The last part of the network meetings were used for planning of conducting new
caregivers’ groups. In some of the districts the facilitators decided to work one new
and one experienced facilitator in pair. The new facilitator candidates will be
supervised by the local trainers in the district. The trainers in each district are
responsible for following up all the facilitators in the district, with support from the
two trainers at KIWAKKUKI office, Lui and Verynice.
Field visits to caregivers’ groups
In each of the four regions I visited a caregivers’ group. Some of the groups
conducted part of a meeting when I was present, and all the groups gave me the
opportunity to interview them. All the participants told very touching stories about
how they experienced to be in the ICDP group and how this had made such a
difference in their lives. The stories about less harsh behavior from the side of the
caregiver and more respect and cooperation from the side of the child were constantly
repeated. They told stories about how they see their children in different ways now
and how they get amazing results when they treat the children differently. One of the
caregivers was asked what made the difference in such a way that she could change
both her attitude and her behavior towards the child. She answered: “This programme
touched my heart. I could feel that this was true. We were asked to go home and
practice our new knowledge through home tasks, and we reported the results in the
next meeting. In that way we realized that the message really was true.”
One of the groups had made a song. They put one person in the middle of the circle of
caregivers, and this person was singing, while everybody was dancing: “Who am I?”
The others answered: “You are a child. Your caregiver needs you and depends on
you. Our community needs you and depends on you. Our nation needs you and
depends on you.”
Then they switched, and another person entered the middle of the circle, singing:
“Who am I?” The others answered: “You’re the caregiver. The child needs you and
depends on you. Our community needs you and depends on you. Our nation needs
you and depends on you.”
Then they switched again, and the person in the middle of the circle was singing:
“Who am I?” “You’re our facilitator. The children need you and depend on you, the
caregivers need you and depend on you, our community needs you and depends on
you, and our nation needs you and depends on you.”
See the appendix for more quotes from the caregivers about the impact of the
programme.
The caregivers expressed that they were grateful to have been invited to participate in
the groups, and they keep telling their family and their neighbors about the
programme and how to treat the children.
Meeting with Amani ECD
Amani ECD works as an ECD resource organization and facilitates partnerships for
collaborative action to improve early childhood policies, programmes and budgeting
at all levels. KIWAKKUKI is a partner organization to Amani ECD, and during her
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 36
last visit to Moshi, Chanel Croker in Amani learned to know about ICDP and the
achievements for children in the Kilimanjaro region. She wanted to learn more and
decided to come with Amani’s new Director Fizza Moloo to Moshi for a meeting with
Lui Mfangavo and me.
The situation in Tanzania at the present is that the government is working on an Early
Child Development policy. The work is initiated by Unicef and supported by other
organizations, among them Amani. The Ministry of Education is in charge of working
on the issue, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social
Welfare and the Ministry of Community Develoment. Staff from Amani is in regular
contact with the Ministries, and so is Lui Mfangavo from KIWAKKUKI.
The plan is to have a pilot project in 6-8 districts in Tanzania to implement an ECD
strategy. ICDP is according to Amani and KIWAKKUKI a very interesting
programme to be implemented as part of this strategy. The first step now will be to
make a good presentation from the work in the Kilimanjaro region and approach the
Ministries with this presentation. Amani will collaborate with KIWAKKUKI to
achieve this.
If the programme is going to be implemented on national level in Tanzania,
collaboration with ICDP International is needed. Thus I will contact Karsten
Hundeide as chairman of ICDP International and inform him about the ongoing work.
Meeting with representatives from the KIWAKKUKI CBT project
Kiwakkuki is now in the first phase of implementing a new two-year pilot project
concerning treatment of children and adolescents that have experienced trauma. The
pilot project is carried out in collaboration with and funded by Yale University, USA.
The CBT plan is to form 4-6 groups with 8 participants in each group. Each group
will have an agenda of 12 meetings, with topics of trauma and loss. There will be
parallel groups for children/youth and their caregivers.
In order to see how the ICDP Programme and the CBT project can correspond and
supplement each other, Executive coordinator at KIWAKKUKI, Dafrosa Itemba, Lui
Mfangavo and I had a meeting with the responsible staff from Yale and University of
Washington. We informed about the content of the programme in general and how
locally made drawings have been used in order to help the caregivers to understand
the child’s thoughts and feelings in a better way, related to the situation like sickness,
loss of caregivers, attending to funerals, orphans approaching a new home, children
watching domestic violence etc. The representatives from CBT found the work
already done very interesting, and they will continue to work with Lui Mfangavo to
see how their project can build upon the already existing work done by the ICDP
facilitators.
Strengths and challenges
The local trainers in KIWAKKUKI have step by step taken over the responsibility for
training and implementation of the project ch is very important to make the work
sustainable. Thetrainers planned and conducted the training of new facilitators,
network meetings and field visits. The capacity and competence of the trainers differs
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 37
from person to person, but they all contributed in some way. The staffat
KIWAKKUKI, Lui and Verynice, are mainly responsible for the project trainer Egla
Matechi in Moshi rural east, and that the other trainers assist them and take
responsibility in the different districts.
The KIWAKKUKI staff and volunteers have very good procedures for implementing
the project their way of going through the ward and village leaders. The facilitators
have achieved a lot by sensitizing the caregivers, and the result is change of the
caregivers’ attitudes and behavior. The changes are not only at the level of interaction
and the relationship between the caregiver and the child, but also on family and
community level. It is amazing that a relatively simple and short intervention can
make such a difference in the lives of so many people. It seems to me that the power
of the message of love and closeness in a society that traditionally raises children in a
harsh way is the key. The facilitators are touched by the message themselves, and they
convey it to others in a very strong way.
The challenges, , are to understand the content of the ICDP programme even better in
order to keep the quality of the programme. I noticed that both trainers and facilitators
needed to repeat the eight guidelines for good interaction and that it is difficult to
understand some of them. If possible, I would recommend more use of video analysis
during the training of new facilitators and network meetings in order to understand the
guidelines better.
We have since the beginning been working a lot with understanding the difference
between an instructive programme and a sensitizing programme. This is still an issue.
It is especially needed to stress the subject when training new facilitators, as the use
of the word sensitization often is differently in KIWAKKUKI from how we use it in
ICDP. The most important is probably to show the facilitators in practice what
sensitization means, find good questions related to the local context to be asked etc.
Other challenges now are making a good system for training, certifying and follow up
of facilitators, and to provide them with needed materials in order to carry out the
sensitization in the groups (for example pictures and drawings). It would also be
good, if possible, to make a leaflet for the caregivers, showing the eight guidelines for
good interaction in text and pictures. The text is available in Kiswahili, and so are
most of the pictures from the local context.
Conclusion
The ICDP work in KIWAKKUKI is going on very well, and it is good to see how the
local trainers and facilitators take over the responsibility for the implementation and
adapt the programme to the local context. The programme is locally owned now, and
this makes it sustainable in the region.
However, it is still needed that ICDP consultants outside Tanzania follow up the
work, especially with respect to guide the local trainers in the content and the quality
of the ICDP programme itself. It is also important to give support to the staff in
charge of the programme at KIWAKKUKI. As they are responsible for following up
the other trainers and facilitators, they need support and a feeling that they have
someone to lean on. They also need to feel as part of a network that can give new
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 38
knowledge, support and motivation. So far staff from KIWAKKUKI has attended
twice at the yearly ICDP network meeting for Southern African countries in Maputo,
Mocamique. Hopefully this participation can continue.
And, by the end: If the programme is going to be scaled up to other regions in
Tanzania, it is very important to make use of the competence of the Tanzanian staff
that is already trained. International consultants can support and monitor the work, but
the training of new staff and/or volunteers should be done by Tanzanian trainers.
Meeting with experienced and new facilitators in Moshi the 15th
of March 2010
The facilitators told stories from the achievements they had experienced in their
groups with the caregivers. They also told how the programme had influenced and
changed their personal lives:
“I used to abuse alcohol, because I was very stressed. My wife died, and I was very
harsh to my children. I felt that the children were bothering me, and I said to them: “I
didn’t kill your mother, so why do you bother me?” The children were afraid of me,
and they ran away from home. I thought I could solve my problems, calm down and
reduce the stress by drinking. Through sensitization in the ICDP group I learned to
calm down and to treat the children differently. I learned to be close to them and to
have a transparent atmosphere in the family. I have stopped drinking, and everything
is peaceful in the family now.” Other facilitators added to his story and told that he
had changed completely, and appeared like a new person, both to his children and to
other people.
“I had lots of anger inside me, and I felt that the children were bothering me. I was not
capable of taking care of my own children. After the sensitization I calmed down, and
now I take care of an orphan in my home in addition to my own children. The people
in my village keep asking what happened, and they think that I take medicine to calm
down!”
“I have become enlightened and changed by the spirit of love. I have learned that even
if a child does something wrong, he should be shown respect and love, not the stick.”
“I was not aware that rudeness is not good to the child. Now I am humble and polite.
My children cooperate now. We work together, and there is no spirit of problems in
the family. The caregivers in the group I facilitated have also changed.”
“I did much progress, and so did my family. I was a very rude mom, and when my
child did something wrong, I hit him with the stick. Now I guide him and direct him,
and I praise him. One of the caregivers in the groups I facilitated said that he had a
child that was not good. Now, after the lessons, he can sit with the child and listen to
the child’s problems. They have become friends.”
“When I came home after the first group meeting, I was more humble. I started with
talking to my husband; I came close to him and discussed how we could raise the
children in a good way. When the children experienced that we cooperated, they
became very cooperative too. This programme is very good to our society, and I want
to sensitize many more caregivers.”
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 39
“I learned that a better way of being closer to the children is to be as a child. You
can’t rear the child by using the stick. When you show love to your child, the child
will understand that he is a person, too.”
“I was an alcoholic, and so was my husband. He was cruel, and I was harsh with the
children. After the sensitization I have reduced the drinking, and I have slowed down.
Now I can sit with the children, and they have come much closer to me. Now the
children are very cooperative, and they arrange everything in the home when I am
away. All the family members are calmer now. I am so happy about this knowledge.”
“I am a widow, and I used to drink too much alcohol. I didn’t pay attention to my
children or acknowledge their needs. After the sensitization, something happened in
my heart. I have changed. I was harsh, and now I am polite. I learned about the
guidelines, and I understood that I didn’t follow them. I looked at the pictures, and I
understood that I had to come closer to my children.”
“I saw all the activities from my grandsons as they wanted to disturb me. Through the
guidelines of showing love and following the child’s initiative my grandsons have
come closer to me. Now they don’t run away any longer.”
“I was very strict, and I didn’t like the children to touch the TV or the video. Now I
encourage them to examine things, because I understand that in this way they can
widen their knowledge.”
One of the most frequent stories is like this:
“The message of love changed my life. The understanding of the importance of
staying close to my children was crucial. When I stay close to my children, show
love, follow their initiative and praise them, the children completely change their
behavior. They trust me and dare to tell me about their problems, and we can sit down
and discuss how to solve the problems. The atmosphere in the family is the one of
transparency.”
Stories from meeting with caregivers in Moshi municipal the
15th of March 2010
“I used to treat my children in a very harsh way, especially in the morning. I shouted
to them to make them get up and to get to school.” “Me also. My children were very
scared of me. I shouted at them and used the stick to punish them, and they used to
run away from me. Now the whole atmosphere in my family is different, and
everything is going on very easily. The children behave in a good manner, and there
are no problems. Through the sensitization in the group of caregivers I changed my
mind and my behavior. “
“I think this programme is very important to me as a man. I used to be harsh to my
children, and so was my wife. After participating in the group, I transferred the
knowledge to my wife, and also to the neighbors. There is a completely different
atmosphere in my family now.”
KIWAKKUKI/BvLF ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 40
“The ward leaders also experience a change. Previously they were overwhelmed by
people coming to their office with family problems. Now they are relieved by the
ICDP programme, and the cases in need of help are decreasing.”
“The difference with this programme is that the knowledge touched my heart. I could
feel that this was true. We were asked to go home and practice our new knowledge
through home tasks, and we reported the results in the next meeting. In that way we
realized that the message really was true. We changed our behavior, and the children
also changed. The first home task was: How can you come closer to your children?”
Meeting with caregivers in Moshi Rural East 18th of March 2010
A grandmother told the following story about how she changed her behavior:
“My grandson joined a group of bad boys. He let his hair grow, and he started to plate
it. I didn’t like it at all, but he said it was a matter of fashion. After the sensitization I
asked one of the other caregivers in my group to sit down with him and talk with him.
She approached him in a very nice way, and they built a trustful relationship. They
were discussing the problem with the hair, and he agreed to cut his hair. Now he is
very cooperative.” –Later in the meeting the teenager came to the group and told that
he was very happy with this solution. He was so happy that the caregiver discussed
with him in a nice way instead of being harsh to him. He had now left the group of
bad boys.
Another woman told: “My son earned money as a porter at Kilimanjaro, but he spent
the money in a very bad way by drinking alcohol. I didn’t know how to change him.
After the sensitization I decided to call him nicely and ask him to sit down and talk. It
was very useful, and now he has changed completely. He has agreed to spend the
money for building a house.”
A village leader told the following story: “I used to think that my child was a bad boy.
One day he threw an egg to the ground, and the egg broke. Usually I would have
become angry; talk to him in a harsh way and maybe beat him to make him
understand that this is unacceptable. However, since this was after the sensitization in
the group, I stopped myself, and I asked him the reason for throwing the egg. He
answered that he was wondering what was inside the egg. In this way I understood
that my boy is not bad, but he is curious and wants to develop his brain. From there I
could guide him and help him to understand that this could be done in a better way
then throwing the egg to the ground. Now I am proud of him!”
March 24, 2011
March 06, 2011
Melkizidik in the NEWS
I have been asked to re-introduce everyone who reads the KIWAKKUKI Blog, about our wonderful young man Melkizedik Uriyo. Because he has been so open and transparent in his dedication not just to his school studies but also to his relationship with the KCMC/Duke Community Advisory Board, I am happy to write about Melkizidik again. Though, I did not manage to take a picture of Melki at the last CAB meeting, I can relate a little about what is currently happening with him.
Melkizedik came to the attention of KIWAKKUKI through a wonderful project called “The Memory Project”. This is a project that was funded through Health Link/ “Comic Relief”. Sadly, the funding has ended for this amazing project and new funding is being desperately sought for this worthwhile group. Mama Kishe Fudasia was sent this young man. He did not know his age, he was sick, and a relative suggested that he come to her for help.
His story as he told it:
His father died, and not long afterwards, his mother. No one told him what was the matter with them, what they had died of, or that he was now going to face the life of an orphan. Melki was shuttled back and forth between Dar Es Saalam, Arusha and Moshi between one uncle and another. I finally thought that he had found a better location with an uncle in Moshi. But, one day this uncle was robbed and he blamed Melki for either the robbery or for not locking their room well enough. At anyrate, Melki was sick and afraid that he might be harmed if he tried to stay with this uncle, so he left again. A small aunt took him in with her two children. Her house was basically a big room and there was no bed or pad to sleep on. She was poor and there was no electricity and he was sick.
He finally was told that he probably had AIDS, because that is what parents had died of. This was a big shock to Melki, but he agreed to go for treatment. He was tested and did find that he was HIV-positive. He was referred to KIWAKKUKI from there. Melki had missed a number of years of school, he had no money for school fees, and he had just learned the final truth about himself and his parents. Mama Kishe helped him through the Memory Club, where he was able to make a family true, a book about his family, and to be with other children who also were orphaned by AIDS, and many also were HIV-infected themselves.
These stories that they tell are harsh. They are filled with abuse from relatives, lack of basics that most Westerners and indeed other Africans take for granted. A kind word, an understanding hug, some food, a roof, and finally access to education. The children shared their stories with one another. Horrifying though each one was, you did not see them trying to compete for “my story is worse than yours”. Each of them offered support to the other one, and at the end of the club, played games cheerfully and then the competition began. This vital work has ended because the donor has ended support to the project. What a shame. But, not Mama Kishe. Each and every young person she has worked with has become as if he or she is her own.
She continues to watch out for these children, and Melkizedik has exceeded her wildest expectations. Funding was found initially for a mattress for the family to sleep on, and then from wonderful social work students from Norway to get Melkizedik back into school. Support from Jen, Caitlin, Sarah and the Weiss family, Rehema, Dr. Moro at KCMC, the Watson family and others has allowed Meki to live in a single room with electricity so that he can study without disturbance from younger relatives who were always wanting him to put out his candle.
Melkizedik has improved in his English speaking so much that he is becoming fluent and not only that, but that he really comprehends what people are asking and can answer in a thoughtful manner. He is thin and tall now. We find that he is in Secondary 4 and though older than the other young people at this level, is not discouraged and continues to work hard. Melki’s life is not easy. He is frequently waiting for funds to come through so that he can get one more meal. He struggles on his own to study and pass his tests, and speaking out about HIV/AIDS always costs some young people friendships, but it is the path that he has chosen.
Melkizedik helped to open the Child Centered Family Care Center in 2007. He told his story to a crowd of over 100 people. As Dani Swai translated for him, it was easy to tell that Dani was as overpowered as the rest of us, and he is an occupational therapist who helps some of the most disabled people in the Kilimanjaro region.
Melkizedik needs your help, support and encouragement just as thousands of other orphans in this poor country do. Melkizedik thanks everyone who has helped him. Please think about him, and think about what you can do to help others like him.
February 24, 2011
KIWAKKUKI Change and Love
KIWAKKUKI is in Change
Still Dedicated to the Rights of Women and Girls
(But not forgetting the boys in the process!)
(This is Neema after "in-house" collection and the social worker buying clothes and a school bag)
“Neema” was 13 years old and her father died of AIDS. The family, all Masaai, was relatively prosperous until the father died. The mother has at least three children both young girls who were attending school. As frequently happens, when the father died, a brother stepped in and took his cattle and all his other belongs and left this family destitute. The children had taken to hunting in the forest for places where fire had been set for campfires with charcoal and had gathered the left over charcoal to sell so that they could eat. The mother had heard about KIWAKKUKI through all the work in the local level villages, especially about their focus on children, school, and adequate clothing and food. So, she brought the girls to KIWAKKUKI in hopes that there might be something, anything available for them. She and the girls were greeted with the usual compassion and a desire to find some small things for the children to take home and a promise to look for some school sponsorship.
The following day, the young 13 year old appeared at KIWAKKUKI in tears. Upon arriving at home, she was informed by her father’s brother that she would be circumcised on Sunday and married to a stranger that very day. This young girl barely looked 10 years old and was terrified. She was terrified to leave KIWAKKUKI for she had no idea what her uncle might do to her for coming back to KIWAKKUKI, and she was terrified about the prospect of this circumcism and marriage to a stranger, (probably one who owns cows and would pay for her with the cattle). All of us were completely overwhelmed by this situation. Horrified, we all tried to think of something that we could do to help.
One of the many things that KIWAKKUKI does well, is to collaborate with other organizations. In fact, most other women’s organizations or organizations with women as leaders are KIWAKKUKI members. This collaboration has been beneficial to countless young people, especially women and girls. And, it happened that the strong Memory Project Director Fudasia Kishe was in the office. She took over. Mama Kishe calmed the young girl down and took her to KWIEKO (a women and girls legal organization) and they contacted NAFGEM (the local Masaiii Women’s organization against female genital mutilation) and together spoke with the police. The police department currently has a person whose sole job is to deal with abuse, and all agreed that this young girl certainly was in an abusive situation. The police officer was not available to work all the details out, thus Mama Kishe took this young girl home offering no chance that she could be abducted and the child be beaten and circumcised ahead of time.
On the following day, she returned with Mama Kishe. They went to KWIEKO to begin the procedures against the uncle. The focus that KIWAKKUKI has begun to enforce is Early Childhood Development child rights. Who would know, that even as I was reviewing the project year for my sisters at KIWAKKKUKI this terrified sweetheart would benefit from all the labors of the KIWAKKUKI membership that had been funded by BvLF. Her name is Neema. This means, “grace”.
She has discovered that her sisters have now been circumcised and married, and that if she returns to the village, she may not survive so emergency measures are in place to keep her safe. The difficulty now is great. Much time has been spent to save this child; yet there are so many more like her. However, one child at a time may save other children in the future. Attention called to this child’s circumstance and the police’s willingness to deal with the problem show steps forward.
As a long time member of KIWAKKUKI, I have had the luxury of learning about each of the programs of KIWAKKUKI. Sometimes, I have learned more than I dreamed and more than I might want, because some problems seem so overwhelming, I cannot imagine a way out. My nearly 30 years of training in social work have not prepared me for some of the issues that KIWAKKUKI deals with on a daily basis. I find it remarkable.
One of my KIWAKKUKI Sisters, Lui who is director of the Orphan's Program
Most recently, I have been helping with editing project plans and reports. This is something that I really enjoy because I have the opportunity to learn about each department, the amazing amount of work they do with the least amount of financial support. Over the years, my KIWAKKUKI friends have improved significantly in English speaking and writing. They are much more proficient in English than I in Kiswahili.
In honor of the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, Lydia dressed for him on this holiday. Though Christian, she and others are respectful of all religions
How to describe what is happening now. Well, as KIWAKKUKI has moved through each year, they see that HIV/AIDS is only the tip of the issues that are prevalent for impoverished persons in the Kilimanjaro Region. Issues pertaining to women and girls, particularly as related to gender inequality has always been a part of the KIWAKKUKI mission and vision. As focus on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (due to the AIDS epidemic) was taking off, KIWAKKUKI noticed that the rights of all children needed attention, particularly for those children from 8 years and under. Where were safe playing areas, where were the birth registrations for these children? Another issue required attention. When these children grow up, who will listen to them? Are their parents or guardians paying attention to them, working hard to offer school sponsorship, finding safe areas for them to study, keeping the young girls from being sold to early marriages and setting the right example for them to grow up without being exposed to drugs and alcohol.
This is not a random picture of Judith, her mom and me. Remember Judith.....Wow. She is now going to Vocational Training School. She and her mom are HIV-infected and she couldn't attend school enough on a regular basis to satisfactorily finish her exams. Technical school will offer a good trade, and she is thrilled to be learning the latest in hair design and cutting! Thank you Kathy, Don and Candy. Without you her life would be lost.
Another great thanks to Andrea's church for supporting this young girl.
A terrific campaign occurred last year that with donations from funding organizations such as Oxfam Ireland, Bernard van Leer, Focus (Women’s Front of Norway) and some other organizations this membership (Oxfam Ireland)rallied together all over the region to address some crisis situations in the villages. As KIWAKKUKI has always been an organization that responds to the wishes of its membership, their support and participation is crucial and serves the people from the bottom up. As I read these reports, I discovered that in 14 wards of three districts, children’s playing fields were set aside, birth registration campaigns begin, meetings with government officials, and teacher training on the Early Childhood Development principles of child rearing were being put into place. Whole communities along with government officials became stakeholders in supporting the children of the villages, and the KIWAKKUKI members and other village members gained a seat at the table of the “decision makers”.
KIWAKKUKI Volunteers help to distribute food from the World Food Program at their local villages
Children organized a “Breaking the Silence” campaign to meet with parents and guardians and present the issues that they felt were being ignored, simple things like having sex in front of them and thinking that the children didn’t know what was happening, or living next to bars or other unsafe areas where it was dangerous (particularly for the teen girls) to walk. 14 Days against Violence to Women brought throngs of people out to support the KIWAKKUKI members who took to the streets to protest Gender inequality. (Yet even during this two weeks, a young girl was married, failed to “perform” was beaten severely and finally hung from a tree, as if to say, “try to change this culture, just try”) But this only called more attention to the purpose of these days against violence to Women. Groups met to discuss issues of “gender mainstreaming” which moves out of gender alone and into issues pertaining to the ability of older persons or disabled persons to work. School health clubs were organized and for the first time, these clubs included some blind and or deaf persons, or persons with other disabilities. These clubs didn’t sit around and chat, they actively engaged in projects from improving water safety to creating small gardens which helped their fellow students who were more impoverished than they.
Sack Farming
School Health Clubs planning their day and learning songs and plays.
While all this is going on, they also share and discuss information about behavior, healthy living, and delaying sexual activity. With teachers and local KIWAKKUKI leaders as facilitators, these projects become their own, not that of an outsider. Africa Child Day, was incorporated into a Child Rights Day! Children prepared songs, stories, and little plays with their teachers for the Regional Commissioner and nearly all the other leaders of the District. The children were undaunted, and they showed that they were Tanzanians who love their past, but also look forward to a future for themselves that includes their right for love, their right for birth registration, their right to play. All these are incorporated into their plan and the amazingly the government officials were so impressed that they promised to work on specific child focused issues in their budgets.
Children learning African Dances to perform for Government Officials
In all of these activities, I heard the word “culture” and “ownership” over and over. For years I have heard people dissent when approached with some of the World Health Guides for better health. “This isn’t part of our culture”. Now, with the KIWAKKUKI mentors and membership groups, some of the old ways are brought back. Songs, poems, story telling and making toys out of available materials, remind young people of a time before computers, and give them roots. The projects become theirs.
These volunteers, parents and caregivers are learning about Early Childhood Behavior. They are actively engaged. KIWAKKUKI uses adult learning style participatory learning techniques.
Lydia demonstrating with another KIWAKKUKI volunteer the "Fleet of Hope" to drop-ins at the information center. (These have also been distributed to the school health clubs)
At the same time, the information center hosted over a thousand persons who come for testing, or to just learn a bit more about HIV and sexually transmitted infections. They come to request services available through Home Based Care or orphan school sponsorship. Sometimes just to rest and hope that there might be some tea.
Personally, I feel that this ground up method is the only method. While many funding organizations are moving towards funding from the top down (Government Level), I meet with my KIWAKKUKI sisters from a village who have just spent hours helping a poor family to gain birth registration, or the whole village who are watching the children’s playing ground to make sure that it remains safe and I know that this could never happen without the bottom up funding. Thank goodness for the wonder of these dedicated people who do so much with so little. May they be successful in this very big, very poor and beautiful region.
Finally, A Big Thanks to Duke Students who raised $600 USD for almost one full year for Peter. He is the young man I wrote about as one of the many of those left behind. Peter is now in exams, the money received, and he is so far able to remain in college. Completing college will be the only way that he can earn enough money to support his young siblings. Thanks Duke Students for opening your pockets for this dedicated young man who lives to take care of his blind sister and brother.
Still Dedicated to the Rights of Women and Girls
(But not forgetting the boys in the process!)
(This is Neema after "in-house" collection and the social worker buying clothes and a school bag)
“Neema” was 13 years old and her father died of AIDS. The family, all Masaai, was relatively prosperous until the father died. The mother has at least three children both young girls who were attending school. As frequently happens, when the father died, a brother stepped in and took his cattle and all his other belongs and left this family destitute. The children had taken to hunting in the forest for places where fire had been set for campfires with charcoal and had gathered the left over charcoal to sell so that they could eat. The mother had heard about KIWAKKUKI through all the work in the local level villages, especially about their focus on children, school, and adequate clothing and food. So, she brought the girls to KIWAKKUKI in hopes that there might be something, anything available for them. She and the girls were greeted with the usual compassion and a desire to find some small things for the children to take home and a promise to look for some school sponsorship.
The following day, the young 13 year old appeared at KIWAKKUKI in tears. Upon arriving at home, she was informed by her father’s brother that she would be circumcised on Sunday and married to a stranger that very day. This young girl barely looked 10 years old and was terrified. She was terrified to leave KIWAKKUKI for she had no idea what her uncle might do to her for coming back to KIWAKKUKI, and she was terrified about the prospect of this circumcism and marriage to a stranger, (probably one who owns cows and would pay for her with the cattle). All of us were completely overwhelmed by this situation. Horrified, we all tried to think of something that we could do to help.
One of the many things that KIWAKKUKI does well, is to collaborate with other organizations. In fact, most other women’s organizations or organizations with women as leaders are KIWAKKUKI members. This collaboration has been beneficial to countless young people, especially women and girls. And, it happened that the strong Memory Project Director Fudasia Kishe was in the office. She took over. Mama Kishe calmed the young girl down and took her to KWIEKO (a women and girls legal organization) and they contacted NAFGEM (the local Masaiii Women’s organization against female genital mutilation) and together spoke with the police. The police department currently has a person whose sole job is to deal with abuse, and all agreed that this young girl certainly was in an abusive situation. The police officer was not available to work all the details out, thus Mama Kishe took this young girl home offering no chance that she could be abducted and the child be beaten and circumcised ahead of time.
On the following day, she returned with Mama Kishe. They went to KWIEKO to begin the procedures against the uncle. The focus that KIWAKKUKI has begun to enforce is Early Childhood Development child rights. Who would know, that even as I was reviewing the project year for my sisters at KIWAKKKUKI this terrified sweetheart would benefit from all the labors of the KIWAKKUKI membership that had been funded by BvLF. Her name is Neema. This means, “grace”.
She has discovered that her sisters have now been circumcised and married, and that if she returns to the village, she may not survive so emergency measures are in place to keep her safe. The difficulty now is great. Much time has been spent to save this child; yet there are so many more like her. However, one child at a time may save other children in the future. Attention called to this child’s circumstance and the police’s willingness to deal with the problem show steps forward.
As a long time member of KIWAKKUKI, I have had the luxury of learning about each of the programs of KIWAKKUKI. Sometimes, I have learned more than I dreamed and more than I might want, because some problems seem so overwhelming, I cannot imagine a way out. My nearly 30 years of training in social work have not prepared me for some of the issues that KIWAKKUKI deals with on a daily basis. I find it remarkable.
One of my KIWAKKUKI Sisters, Lui who is director of the Orphan's Program
Most recently, I have been helping with editing project plans and reports. This is something that I really enjoy because I have the opportunity to learn about each department, the amazing amount of work they do with the least amount of financial support. Over the years, my KIWAKKUKI friends have improved significantly in English speaking and writing. They are much more proficient in English than I in Kiswahili.
In honor of the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, Lydia dressed for him on this holiday. Though Christian, she and others are respectful of all religions
How to describe what is happening now. Well, as KIWAKKUKI has moved through each year, they see that HIV/AIDS is only the tip of the issues that are prevalent for impoverished persons in the Kilimanjaro Region. Issues pertaining to women and girls, particularly as related to gender inequality has always been a part of the KIWAKKUKI mission and vision. As focus on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (due to the AIDS epidemic) was taking off, KIWAKKUKI noticed that the rights of all children needed attention, particularly for those children from 8 years and under. Where were safe playing areas, where were the birth registrations for these children? Another issue required attention. When these children grow up, who will listen to them? Are their parents or guardians paying attention to them, working hard to offer school sponsorship, finding safe areas for them to study, keeping the young girls from being sold to early marriages and setting the right example for them to grow up without being exposed to drugs and alcohol.
This is not a random picture of Judith, her mom and me. Remember Judith.....Wow. She is now going to Vocational Training School. She and her mom are HIV-infected and she couldn't attend school enough on a regular basis to satisfactorily finish her exams. Technical school will offer a good trade, and she is thrilled to be learning the latest in hair design and cutting! Thank you Kathy, Don and Candy. Without you her life would be lost.
Another great thanks to Andrea's church for supporting this young girl.
A terrific campaign occurred last year that with donations from funding organizations such as Oxfam Ireland, Bernard van Leer, Focus (Women’s Front of Norway) and some other organizations this membership (Oxfam Ireland)rallied together all over the region to address some crisis situations in the villages. As KIWAKKUKI has always been an organization that responds to the wishes of its membership, their support and participation is crucial and serves the people from the bottom up. As I read these reports, I discovered that in 14 wards of three districts, children’s playing fields were set aside, birth registration campaigns begin, meetings with government officials, and teacher training on the Early Childhood Development principles of child rearing were being put into place. Whole communities along with government officials became stakeholders in supporting the children of the villages, and the KIWAKKUKI members and other village members gained a seat at the table of the “decision makers”.
KIWAKKUKI Volunteers help to distribute food from the World Food Program at their local villages
Children organized a “Breaking the Silence” campaign to meet with parents and guardians and present the issues that they felt were being ignored, simple things like having sex in front of them and thinking that the children didn’t know what was happening, or living next to bars or other unsafe areas where it was dangerous (particularly for the teen girls) to walk. 14 Days against Violence to Women brought throngs of people out to support the KIWAKKUKI members who took to the streets to protest Gender inequality. (Yet even during this two weeks, a young girl was married, failed to “perform” was beaten severely and finally hung from a tree, as if to say, “try to change this culture, just try”) But this only called more attention to the purpose of these days against violence to Women. Groups met to discuss issues of “gender mainstreaming” which moves out of gender alone and into issues pertaining to the ability of older persons or disabled persons to work. School health clubs were organized and for the first time, these clubs included some blind and or deaf persons, or persons with other disabilities. These clubs didn’t sit around and chat, they actively engaged in projects from improving water safety to creating small gardens which helped their fellow students who were more impoverished than they.
Sack Farming
School Health Clubs planning their day and learning songs and plays.
While all this is going on, they also share and discuss information about behavior, healthy living, and delaying sexual activity. With teachers and local KIWAKKUKI leaders as facilitators, these projects become their own, not that of an outsider. Africa Child Day, was incorporated into a Child Rights Day! Children prepared songs, stories, and little plays with their teachers for the Regional Commissioner and nearly all the other leaders of the District. The children were undaunted, and they showed that they were Tanzanians who love their past, but also look forward to a future for themselves that includes their right for love, their right for birth registration, their right to play. All these are incorporated into their plan and the amazingly the government officials were so impressed that they promised to work on specific child focused issues in their budgets.
Children learning African Dances to perform for Government Officials
In all of these activities, I heard the word “culture” and “ownership” over and over. For years I have heard people dissent when approached with some of the World Health Guides for better health. “This isn’t part of our culture”. Now, with the KIWAKKUKI mentors and membership groups, some of the old ways are brought back. Songs, poems, story telling and making toys out of available materials, remind young people of a time before computers, and give them roots. The projects become theirs.
These volunteers, parents and caregivers are learning about Early Childhood Behavior. They are actively engaged. KIWAKKUKI uses adult learning style participatory learning techniques.
Lydia demonstrating with another KIWAKKUKI volunteer the "Fleet of Hope" to drop-ins at the information center. (These have also been distributed to the school health clubs)
At the same time, the information center hosted over a thousand persons who come for testing, or to just learn a bit more about HIV and sexually transmitted infections. They come to request services available through Home Based Care or orphan school sponsorship. Sometimes just to rest and hope that there might be some tea.
Personally, I feel that this ground up method is the only method. While many funding organizations are moving towards funding from the top down (Government Level), I meet with my KIWAKKUKI sisters from a village who have just spent hours helping a poor family to gain birth registration, or the whole village who are watching the children’s playing ground to make sure that it remains safe and I know that this could never happen without the bottom up funding. Thank goodness for the wonder of these dedicated people who do so much with so little. May they be successful in this very big, very poor and beautiful region.
Finally, A Big Thanks to Duke Students who raised $600 USD for almost one full year for Peter. He is the young man I wrote about as one of the many of those left behind. Peter is now in exams, the money received, and he is so far able to remain in college. Completing college will be the only way that he can earn enough money to support his young siblings. Thanks Duke Students for opening your pockets for this dedicated young man who lives to take care of his blind sister and brother.
September 13, 2010
The People at the End of the Road
MOSHI Land of Love Land of Beauty Land of Poverty
I have been struggling for a way to present a plea for support, and I still am at a loss. Part of the reason for my difficulty is that I have been so focused on the Moshi school children supported by KIWAKKUKI, that I never thought about the college aged children. What happens when the secondary school finishes and these young orphans manage to pass their exams and enter college. College is simply unattainable for most Tanzanians, and particularly so for an orphan who receives no support from any family member. Yet, is this not the aim of our school programs? What happens when we have a bright young person who supports other siblings, but who cannot continue in school because of fees. There is no such thing as a student loan like we have in the United States. Only if a boy scores in Division I at the end of the year will he be eligible for some amount of scholarship assistance, a girl Level I or II. What happens when you barely miss these levels, but your desire to pursue your degree is great? I just finished Greg Mortenson's second book "Stones for Schools" and have been moved once again by the power of his words. They particularly strike a chord with me because his father was one of the key builders of KCMC hospital, and his family were great friends of our dear friends, The Emmanuel's of Machame and Moshi.
So, I feel that "six degrees of seperation, and have read his books and taken heart in his words.
He quotes from “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.” And he talks about listening. Listen to your community and listen to their needs. Whose agenda is this anyway? I have often said of KIWAKKUKI and other NGO’s that they have to follow the funding sources regardless of whether they are exactly what the membership of the organization had requested. An example to the contrary, that of providing the service that the membership had requested is our mobile voluntary counseling and testing. This request goes as far back as 2006, and finally it is actively occurring, at least in some of the districts.
So, when I was presented with a new young man on the last trip, my heart broke again. As Verynice said to me, “we supported him all the way through secondary school and he has done well. He walked 5 kilometers to see you when he heard that you were in town. He has no bus fare, and no food. We often let him help here to earn bus fare and a bag of corn meal for his siblings. Is there anything you can do?”
Because I have no answer for this young man, with his permission, I have typed his story for you and share his picture (with me and my short Alpesh hair cut)
My name is Peter Ancelim Amani. I am the second born in the family of four children with 1 sister and two brothers. I was born on 21st February 1989. It happened that I was born in a very poor family. My father is a tailor who lives in Moshi Rural in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. His income/day is less than 1 US dollar.
My mother did involve herself in subsistence farming and from this we got food and clothes. We have suffered many problems. When my sister was young, she suffered from measles. Due to the poverty of the family, she failed to attend the hospital for treatment and the measles caused blindness in one eye.
I started my primary school education in 1996 and finished in 2002. At this time, I had government support for education and we had to contribute very little. to make up the difference in school fees. However, at the time, my mother worked in a Shamba and it was her subsistence farming that allowed her to pay for my school fees.
Despite the fact that she was working in the Shamba, she also was suffering from frequent illnesses, though at the time I was young and didn’t wonder what the reasons were for these illnesses. She was advised by some neighbors to be checked out by the hospital because her health was deteriorating and it was then that she discovered that she was HIV-infected. When she disclosed her condition to my father, he was tested but found out to be negative.
Hardships in our lives increased after her discovery of being HIV-infected. I was the eldest in the family and therefore responsible for the care of my mother, and then my father separated from my mother because of the humiliation that she was HIV-infected. She was the one forced out of the house, and she decided to rent a room near us in order to see us when she could and when we could see her. And, it was during this time that I was first unable to get school fees. I thank God that I was smart in the class, and the head teacher offered me a scholarship to study for free after he learned what was happening in our home.
My mother was allowed back in the house when she became very weak. At this time I was in primary grade 5. On Wednesday, May 9th 2001 she passed away. Though it was very hard, I found the courage to go on with school until I finished my primary education in 2002.
I did very well with my primary school examination and I was selected to join the St. James Seminary for ordinary level secondary education (2003-2006). School fees for secondary are high, ten times higher than primary level. Because I knew that I didn’t have this kind of money, I started to lose hope of going on with school and tried to think of what I could do to raise income for my smaller brothers and sister. Fortunately, one of the neighbors came to me and took me to KIWAKKUKI to speak to the orphan’s department. The officers there took the time to listen to me and to verify my story, and they then agreed to pay for my school fees.
The help from KIWAKKUKI assisted me to finish my ordinary secondary school, where I did my national exam and did very well. Thus, I was selected to attend Galanos Secondary High School for Advanced Level Education. The school fees were approximately the same, and therefore KIWAKKUKI continued to support me. I finished my advanced degree in February 2009, passed my exams well and was selected to attend University.
I am now at the Moshi University College of Co-operative and Business Studies (MUCCoBS) taking a Bachelor of Arts and Microfinance and Enterprises Development. (BA-MFED) My registration number is BA-MFED/06/09.
Throughout the time I have been in school, I have wanted to become a business entrepreneur, and had thought about the different activities in which I could be come involved. This has been ever since I was a young child. But life has become much more difficult now. University fees, accommodation and meals are all very expensive. I joined the university in October 2009 and have finished the first year. However, I was only able to pay 15% of the first year as that is the maximum that KIWAKKUKI can donate. The university fees and expenses are above KIWAKKUKI’s budget for one person.
In order for me to go on with my studies in October this year I am supposed to pay for the remainder of last year and at least 40% of next year.
I am writing this story with a lot of tears, asking anyone who might listen or think that they can help me. I beg your assistance your advice, your courage and anything that you might find to assist me. Education is the only think that I have now, and my only hope to save my family. My father is gone, we don’t know where, and I am the final one who is expected to help out.
Yours
Peter Ancelim Amani
Amani_p@yahoo.com
These are the direct words of a young man who came to KIWAKKUKI to discuss ways of budgeting his college years. He lives in the Rau Ward of Moshi Urban, and walked about 5 miles to KIWAKKUKI because he didn’t have bus fare home. I am told that when he comes to KIWAKKUKI, he always offers to help clean or move heavy furniture or do odd jobs without even knowing whether or not he will receive any donation.
I am always impressed with the sincerity and work ethic that these young people have regarding school. This is something that we take for granted here. Primary and High School are free and there are loans and scholarships available for those persons with very low incomes. That is not the case here in Tanzania. In order to qualify for any assistance outside of non-governmental organizations, a young man has to score a grade level 1 on final exams at the college level, a young woman 1 or
2. (More young men are in school at this time than women). But here, is a young man who not only attends school but has to take care of his 3 younger siblings, one of whom has a disability due to the blindness in one eye. It almost seems impossible that he can succeed. Very few programs assist with University, especially when the father is alive, even if he is unwilling or unable to be located.
So I am writing this to ask for help for this young man. There are ways to donate to his school. One would be to donate directly to KIWAKKUKI using his name for college fees. (this way is fine except that it is not tax deductible because KIWAKKUKI is not a tax exempt organization recognized by the US Government. However, there are two other funds that are recognized and can take donations that can be sent directly for his assistance.
Global Connections For Change is a tax exempt organization in North Carolina that is connected with Duke University. All proceeds go to KIWAKKUKI. As well, the Duke CAB/Moshi Fund is another tax exempt code within Duke University that wires any designated money to Moshi for who ever we know is being sponsored.
The address for Global Connections is:
Global Connections for Change
PO Box 51162
Durham, NC 27717
globalconnections4change@gmail.com
For the Duke Fund is:
Duke/Moshi CAB Fund
Partners-In-Caring
Box 3112 DUMC
Durham, NC 27710
Attn: Artie Hendricks
You may also contact me at my gmail account-patricia.bartlett@gmail.com
As you can see, this is a dedicated man, and one who will do anything to help himself and his family. I hope you will offer help.
Thanks
KIWAKKUKI Hang On to Your Hats!
Some of the KIWAKKUKI staff at lunch with John and me.KIWAKKUKI is always a “hold your breath” moment. Something is always happening, but you don’t know what it will be until you walk in the door. Will there be workshops and everyone gone? Will there be people on leave? Will there be a grant deadline and you are suddenly the one who has to edit and send? What will it be? This visit was a mixture. All the bags of shoes and clothes that we dragged through Europe, overweight as they were, made it in tact to our A-5 home. Once five bags were divvied up, it seemed so small! As my dada (sister) Verynice made piles for the 7 districts I thought—well every district will get at least 4 T-shirts, 1 hoodie, 3 pair of tennis shoes, ½ pr of boys shoes, 3 pair of girls shoes, 2 pair of jeans, 2 small dresses, 2 large dresses. Wow-I think. How did those huge bags become so small? As I was unpacking the bags, I learn that one of my favorite projects is coming to a stunning grinding halt. The economy has caused the Spanish Government to pull the plug on Life and Living. This was a program that moved KIWAKKUKI beyond HIV alone towards helping young people learn about how to have sustainable work, the value of work, clean water, growing food, while at the same time teaching prevention and issues about delaying sex and HIV/TB. Yet, this program suddenly ends and all the staff will be given notices. These guys are dedicated, top notch young people who loaded up the car with materials day after day, and went to schools and meeting places to work with clubs and district and ward leaders to bring groups and clubs together to plan sustainable, healthy lives, pulled whoosh! Did I see tears from these workers? No, they are hopeful that something will happen. Surely it will, because they have really given their hearts to this project. Yet there is something distinctly East African in saying, “If God wills it”.
My dada
and I headed out to the rural hills to find sweet Jacinta and the head master of her school who had taken her into his family to live. It was a dusty day as usual & we had near death experiences with speeding trucks and dala dalas. 
It is Wednesday afternoon school sports day in Kirua and "football" is the place to be.
It is Market day in Kirua and people have been drinking mbege (banana beer) as they sell their corn and bananas and millet.
(I had never seen millet on the plant)We tread carefully. We arrive at the school hopeful to find Jacinta and the headmaster with whom she lives, but we find that his wife had died just this morning, and he had gone home with Jacinta. After pondering carefully, we decided that we knew the headmaster well enough to pay respects.
What did I expect of this headmaster’s house. He runs a small private school. He always looks immaculately dressed. I expected a Shantytown fancy house. What we found was a small house down a long steep path (only on foot) that was mostly sticks and mud that had one small cinderblock area with a small living room, two rooms off from that. Outdoor toilets, some other living rooms with stick and mud. Our headmaster looked as if he had lost 20 lbs. He sat with another friend on the traditional stools outside. From inside came the wails of his oldest daughter who had stayed at KCMC for the last night with her mother. Dada Monyo and I did our best to express our condolences. We heard the story of the death of a dear wife and mother. We heard from this wonderful man, the conversation with the KCMC doctor who offered the family the possibility of letting the wife go without pain. For many families, agreeing to pain management rather than treatment is impossible. This man loved his wife enough to let her go. Wow. We brought Jacinta up the hill to talk to her. She looked great. She was sad, but said that she loved school and loved being with new friends and being able to be a teenager, not a wife. (You might remember from previous blogs, that Jacinta had run away from her grandfather’s home after she found that as soon as she graduated from Primary School at the age of 12, she had been sold to be married to an old man.) The whole trip was one of sadness and hope.
As we moved down the mountain to visit Judith, we found another situation altogether. We met with Judy’s grandmother, an aunt and two children in a desolated area of immense poverty down another long footpath. Judith had just left and her grandmother didn’t know where. When we reached her mother, we learned that Judy had been sick repeatedly and had to stop going to school because she was getting so far behind. Now it will be impossible for her to pass her exams, she will have to repeat. Additionally, her CD4 count has dropped below 200 and she has been sick off and on. Their house fell during the rainy season, and they have been allowed to live in one small room with the grandmother-4 of them while her mother tries to support the family by selling used clothes and shoes.
Judy had gone to Arusha to stay for a short while with a relative who could offer her a warmer place to stay, but she could only be there for a week or two at the most and would return. She waited for us to come until the last dala dala left for Arusha and thought we wouldn’t be coming. Of course, she couldn’t have known about the tragedy just above her in Kirua. We talked to Judy’s mother about the need for Judy to start going to the Child Centered Family Care Center at KCMC and to return to school even for catch up. We made a plan that she should repeat her grade so that she could pass her exams, and have faith that she is cared for by her donors Kathy and Candy. Her mother sent her huge thanks for our visit, even though we weren’t able to talk to Judy. We were unable to take any pictures because we were right beside the mosque, and would give a bad perception to the worshipers.
(Judith in better days)We returned from our trip, weary, sad, disappointed, and worried. Will Jacinta be able to remain at the headmaster’s now that his wife has died or will it “look” bad. Will the headmaster return to his position? This happy joyful young woman has no idea of the potential pain lying ahead. Will Judy’s family get a new roof for their sticks and mud house? Will Judy actually go to KCMC? How can she improve her CD4 count, go to school and stay healthy?
KIWAKKUKI has hundreds of these children, each with their own stories. I can only be involved with a few. It is a privilege and a curse. As a social worker for more than 30 years, I have seen my share of misery and tragedy, what KIWAKKUKI adds to my portfolio, is a little more understanding of the human condition.
May 18, 2010
KIWAKKUKI ECD ADVOCACY MEETING AT DISTRICT LEVEL
Historical Background
ECD is an abbreviation of Early Childhood Development.
This focused on early children careering from embryo, infant and child as human being.
This project focus on how do caregivers take responsibilities to take care of children who lost their parents and they do have to change their primary life style and cope with secondary lives (Lives without/with one parent).
The system of children rearing differs from place to place due to different ideologies, traditions and culture.
To some areas it seems that child rearing start from when a mother is pregnant and the process continue until berth.
At KIWAKKUKI this project took over since 2003 when we started to support caregivers for their children
More bout 1500 families from Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural and Mwanga benefited from this project
A Situation Analysis of Early Childhood Development in Moshi District
• KIWAKKUKI conducted Situation Analysis in 2008.
• The main purpose was to collect and compile useful data needed to identify challenges and opportunities available in the districts especially in the location where KIWAKKUKI has ECD and other interventions.
• The data collected was about ECD challenges, Strengths and opportunities related to preparedness of all young children for successful schooling life, preparedness of schools and links and continuity between community, schools and policy environments to support preparedness of children and school
The district level needs assessment was guided by the three major objectives which are;
• To identify, analyze strengths, opportunities and challenges related to preparedness of young children for success in school and life.
– Assess if families and community members have the ability to provide necessary care and necessary information and socialization for young children
– Assess and establish types and quality mechanisms and support structures required by families, and communities to provide quality services to young children so that they can be ready for successful schooling
– Propose specific recommendations related to the challenges, strengths and opportunities related to preparedness of parents and communities to support all young children’s early success and transition to school.
• To identify and analyze the preparedness of schools for young children’s early success, covering key issues on access, quality, and curriculum and teaching-learning methodologies.
• To propose specific actions for different players based on the strengths, opportunities and challenges related to the links/relationships between family/community and service providers (health care facilities, schools, social work, judiciary etc)
Highlight specific implications for ECD partners strategic planning priorities and the Five Year Programme planning in relation to:-
• National situational analysis of ECD in Tanzania, focusing on the transition and relationships between home and school environments for children, families and communities.
• Levels of awareness of stakeholders on ECD and the overall benefits for children and policy advocacy needs.
• priority needs for capacity development and improvement of ECD service provision (quantity and quality)
• documentation of existing research & research priorities on ECD
Key findings from this study indicate that:About Children preparedness for successful schooling;
• Understanding of parents and care givers about children preparedness for successful schooling and life vary and mixed. It is influenced by a number of factors; these range from past experiences (they way families used to socialize and prepare young children for life), value system, economic realities, peer pressures to availability of quality and appropriate facilities for young children.
• Both communities and parents and care givers are aware of the need for young children to be prepared well so that they can be able to join and succeed in schools, They also indicate that young children have to go through different stage of growth that include language, cognitive, and motor milestones development.
• Overall, it is obvious that, ability of families to support and prepare young children depends on a number of factors ranging from socio-economic status of the family to ability to mitigate such hardships. That is to say, while parents are caregivers are struggling and working very hard to prepare their young children, they also need additional support to achieve their goals primarily from within the community and others as appropriate.
• Community members know that their children should attend school, but are unaware of how to help their children make the most of their education experience. Parents do not understand how other factors, such as health care, maintaining a nutritious and balanced diet, etc., can influence a child’s performance and concentration at school. Women are key in the care for young children including making sure that the socialization for all young children is taking place in a correct way that is consistency with the community expectations.
• Although majority of families reported that they can easily access a variety of services available including health, sanitation, transport etc, poor families still have inadequate or limited access to such resources including community services that are necessary to promote and support children's development and school readiness
Regarding schools preparedness for young children success. It was found that
• Both teachers and schools committees indicated that, in order for schools to be able to receive and prepare new children including young ones for lower classes, they need to have necessary services and facilities. Highly motivated teachers with adequate teaching facilities and overall good environments are what are needed
• In terms of access, the MMEM project has contributed a lot of the improved learning and teaching environment including books and other learning materials situation has improved tremendously such that the book ratio is almost getting to a situation whereby only three pupils are sharing one book except for a very few schools
• The quality of care and formal education arrangement is relatively below average. A few schools do not even meet minimum criteria to be considered safe especially for young children. Very few primary schools and day care centers have adequate supplies or trained teachers. The only requirement of a teacher is to be able to read and write, so often a community member lacking ECD training will be teaching the community’s youth. Due to lack of adequate supplies, such as paper, pens, toys, training tool kits etc students are unable to effectively learn and retain information
The study identified a number of strengths in relations to existing efforts and response for children, school preparedness for and existing linkages which include
Strength for children preparedness includes the following;
• Most families prioritize on nutrition and other basic requirements necessary for grown and development for young children.
• Presence of bi-laws empower village and ward authorities to follow and deal with households and caregivers who delays and frustrate eligible registration to pre and primary schools
• Strong services chain in the district; that is in both Mwika (rural) and Rau, almost all families have access to health and other services. There three referral hospitals and a variety of health facilities, improved water supply, improved urban sanitation and good transport
Strengths for preparedness of schools preparedness include the following
• That the structure for the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) is well established down to the community/village level that facilitate for schools to register and train eligible children
• Approved school curriculums are in place and implemented by all public schools and some private owned and managed schools.
• The cost of government school attendance is relative cheap and affordable compared to private schools, this provided enabling environment and influence care givers and communities to register and send their schools.
• There is strong collaboration between pre-schools and ECD centers and primary schools require that a prospective student for a primary school must have previously attended a preschool or ECD center. This promotes early education among children and shows the schools’ willingness to ensure ECD.
Links, continuity and relations between schools and families
• School committees, consisting of skilled professionals and parents, are the owners of the schools. Thus parents and care givers are involved in the schools management through schools committees’ discussions and deliberations.
• Given the history of Moshi district and the whole region of Kilimanjaro, parents and community are well above the normal expectations for education, commitments for children future success is high and press on parents and caregivers to ensure that children are registered for schooling when eligible
A number of challenges in relation to school and children preparedness include the following;
Challenges for preparedness of children include:
• Very few trained preschool teachers and the curriculum existing do match not link with teaching materials available
• Competing priorities at the household level, which makes ECD less important e.g.
• Families concentrate on fees and other requirements for older children attending secondary education because they know (and expect) for government to cater for primary education.
• Lack of clear mechanisms to regulate private owned ECD services and facilities
• Limited number of trained teachers in ECD services
Challenges for preparedness of schools include:
• The number of eligible children is greater than available facilities to cater for them.
• Limited number of trained teachers and services providers on ECD
• Quality of sanitation in primary schools especially in Mwika is generally poor and pose difficult and dangers for young children.
• Lack of clear mechanisms to regulate private owned schools and facilities, is likely to produce quality that do not comply to the national guidelines in terms of physical establishments and human resources
Among the major opportunities for improvement of ECD include;
• Private and FBO sector increasing interest and ambitions to invest in the expansion of the ECD services is one of the opportunities that open way for scaling up ECD services in Moshi.
• The Moshi district council is dedicated to improved ECD delivery. Over time, there are efforts to increase allocations on ECD coordination including enhancing inspection services and training for teachers
• With retirees who have accumulated experiences and skills, they can be used to support ECD activities in different ways including teaching and others especially in the rural areas.
•
This study recommends a number of actions that can be used to improve care and education for young children. These actions require involvements of multiple partners and they include;
• District level actions for improvement include the following;
– Work with other partners i.e. NGOs to establish ways to facilitate and scale up special programs for children with special needs, orphans, and disabilities and from poor families such that they can as well access quality services and care.
– Mobilize communities and the private sector to invest in the improvement and expansion of the ECD services and facilities.
– Mobilize more resources from possible sources and allocate additional to ECD improvements including monitoring resources utilizations to make sure that they are not diverted to other areas.
– Collect and compile appropriate data required by lower levels to prepare and plan. Data about projections of children for pre and primary enrolment can be useful for schools.
– Training and on-job training for teachers especially those for centers and lower classes and increase allocation of trained and qualified teachers to all schools according to needs.
– Improve coordination of ECD especially at the district level between education and social welfare departments.
CSOs and NGOs type of support include the following;
• Advocate for more allocations of trained teachers for ECD and primary schools that should be allocated appropriately such that each schools is allocated what it is needed.
• Support village and ward leaders plan for and prioritize for children with special needs.
• Mobilize parents to continue supporting expansion and improvement of ECD activities in the district through self help arrangements including donations.
• Mobilize parents to participate and/or contribute for the improvements in school infrastructure especially; classrooms, teachers houses, water and sanitation.
The findings from this situation analysis present a number of opportunities and challenges specific for KIWAKKUKI and ECD partners. Implies among other the following for KIWAKKUKI strategic priorities in the five years;
• Caregivers and parents are motivated to prepare their schooling; they work very hard and invest in future success.
• Majority of children from poor/low income families will go to schools with poor physical infrastructures and untrained/less motivated teachers.
• HIV/AIDS is posing a serious challenge, continue to produce orphans, who are likely to miss education and other services
• Economic hardships and competing demands frustrates ambitions to offer care and for children-early learning
Contn….
• Increasing investments in early education i.e. centers and pre schools, increases chances and improves quality
• Many more untrained teachers to be used to fill the gap
• Participatory approaches to education are very limited, as teachers see themselves as the ones in control
• The home department for ECD at the district level- different departments deals with ECD in pieces
As far as ECD partners planning and priorities are concerned, they imply the following;
• Need for allocating more resources specific for ECD in the national budget. In regard to financial resources, a portion of the national budget needs to be directed towards the school systems because currently most preschools are private schools and families lacking the monetary means are left without a way to provide their children with education. All children need to have a way to attend primary schools, which means financial sponsoring from the government; such financial support should be channeled directly to MOEVT which needs to work and coordinate with other sector ministries i.e. MoHSW, PMO-RALG and MCDGC. This money must also be used to pay for the teachers’ salaries, training additional or ECD teachers or pay for on-job training for teachers already handling and teaching lower classes, buy training kits, and purchase medicine for the children (e.g. antiworm medication).
2. Advocate for a policy and guideline to support early childhood development in the country. The desired policy should clearly articulate roles, responsibilities, factors for success and additional research required to inform integrated and sustainable ECD in the Tanzania and risk mitigating measures.
3. Need to work with other sector ministries to address the gaps and chart out improvements necessary for ECD and related sectors in response to NIGPRS/MKUKUTA
4. Need for pushing for harmonized bi-laws and guidelines such that they do not create confusions and barriers rather contribute to improvements and establish accurate links between communities, schools and other services providers.
5. Need to advocate for national training strategy for ECD and primary school teachers so that to fill the gaps and improve the quality of teaching and support right away from pre through early primary school
Future ECD analysis should try to respond to the following questions;
• What is needed to prepare young children for success in school and life so as to respond to the family, community, ward and district expectations
• What does it mean for Family, Community, District and National level stakeholders to prepare schools that can support young children’s early success in school?
• Do we have a shared understanding about these issues – from family, community, District to national levels, and across different sectors?
• Are all young children well prepared for success in school and life
• How do young children themselves define preparedness for schools, what do they think about schools
• What do schools think about prepared children and what the success factors
• How district and national level players prepared to ensure that children are ready fir schools and schools are well prepared for children
• How can other stakeholders be involved in making sure that children are prepared for schools and schools are ready for children
• improved quality of care and early education at the family and community level and thereby ensure their readiness for school;
•
schools’ improved readiness for supporting young children’s access to and success in school
• However without the indicators for the Operational target for Early Childhood, ‘Increase in the number of young children prepared for school and schools prepared ready to care for children’ (NSGRP Cluster II), there is little data and information forthcoming in relation to progress, or the specific challenges and opportunities at national, district and community levels.
Research from elsewhere regarding children readiness for schools indicates that a number of factors affect and determine type and quality of education and care young children end up receiving. These studies point on issues of poverty, changing socio-cultural contexts, and HIV/AIDS, negatively impact on families capacity to care for and support their children’s overall development in the early years (0 – 8 ) when support is most critical. In reality
– poor families are often struggling to meet their young children’s basic needs;
– because of women’s increasing work pressures, traditional child-care support structures are dwindling , and sibling care-givers are now attending school,
– families have limited or no access to alternative child-care support arrangements which means that young children are often left alone during the day;
• Thus children from poor families and others most vulnerable children including orphans are more likely to enter school
– Undernourished and in poor health
– With limited cognitive and language abilities
– Lacking self-confidence
– Having had no preparation for school culture, social routines and language
• (Overview by ADED & CGECCD, 2006 Biennale of Education in Africa, in Gabon)
• There is consensus, based on a wealth of international research that there is a number of interacting dimensions affect a child’s early learning capacity from birth, and his/her readiness to learn and succeed in school. These include; physical well-being (including nutrition) and motor development, social and emotional development, language development, approaches to learning and cognition and general knowledge,
• Early childhood is a period of remarkable brain development that lays the foundation for all later learning. For disadvantaged children however, their circumstances often lead to poor nutrition and health, limited stimulation and early education, the impact of which goes unnoticed until they either fail to enter school, or drop out early and fail to succeed. Early intervention through parenting education, child care and support programmes for these children, including those with disabilities can significantly “...offset disadvantage and inequality, especially for children from poor families”
In Tanzanian Context, we know that there are significant challenges:-
• One out of three children are under weight, with rural children more likely to be malnourished than urban children
• The number of orphans is estimated to be 2,093,000, which is equivalent to 12% of all children (Census 2002)
• more than 95% of young children lack access to early stimulation and social protection programmes, care facilities or non-fee-paying pre-schools and parental education (UNICEF 2007)
• there is little or no data on the informal care and education of young children in family and community contexts
• Children’s access the health services remains limited ‘…eight out of ten children in Tanzania (who die), die at home and six of them without any contact with formal health services’ (URT, 2005)
• There is a lack of clear data and about children’s progress and success in the early years of primary school, and yet international research indicates that early success with basic literacy and numeracy skills is vital for ongoing success (Abadzi, 2006);
• Lack of trained pre-primary teachers – of 147,591 teachers in pre-primary school (2006) 17% of them are certified teachers (UNICEF 2007).
• Overcrowded classes impede teachers in adopting more child-friendly teaching methodologies (PHDR 2007).
• the school enrolment rate is high but so is the drop-out rate where as; only 0.3% of enrolments are disabled children, standard 1 drop-out is a high, 10.6% (UNESCO, 2007, GMR – 2004 data) and 22% of children fail to complete primary school
• Insufficient integration of ECD issues into social sector policies and guidelines regarding health, food and nutrition, water and sanitation, lobour, gender and women’s development, community development, adult education and culture.
Children preparedness for success in schools and life
• Insert picture
• Women cannot manage their workload and child care on their own family support roles
• Repetition rate for 2007/2008- 9.7% for std I & II
• Drop out rate 2007/2008 -7.5% for std IV
• Children preparedness for school is directly linked to their development and learning through Active learning
• Children learn better by exploring their potential through playing
Schools preparedness to for supporting young children’s early success
• Insert picture
• The poor quality of primary schools is significantly denying every child’s right to success
• Many school environments lack basic infrastructure
• Distance from formal primary schools deprive most of the children chances to enter school at appropriate age
• Satellite schools could be a best solution for these type of community
Schools preparedness to for supporting young children’s early success
• Insert picture
• Children not meeting minimum learning standards by grade 3 and 4 are most likely to repeat and ultimately fail school
• Most of schools are not friendly for children with disabilities
• Teacher interaction with children enhances learning
Links,continuity and relationships between diverse care and education environments for young children.
• Schools tend to dominate non formal care and education programmes
• Teachers lack the capacity to work with parents and the communities as partners in children learning
• Many children living in remote areas do not encounter Swahili until they enter school which makes their transitions to school dificult.
Implications
• Conflicting polices at guidelines at local level(Council)
• Exclusive teacher training for early primary classes
• Comprensive young children programs to build on cultural contexts(Curricullum,knowledge and practice)
• Children with disability isolated
• Need for increased awareness on how critical the early years are in children’s development at all levels.
Its our turn Now!
What best can we do to change the situation of young children in our areas?
Results from ECD Advocacy Meetting at Village & Ward level
Acrording to REPOA Report
• A human dimension that challenge all adults are:-
– Children wants to be listened
– Children want to be taught by teachers who like children and who make effort
– Children need to be heard(URT,MPEE,2007)
Historical Background
ECD is an abbreviation of Early Childhood Development.
This focused on early children careering from embryo, infant and child as human being.
This project focus on how do caregivers take responsibilities to take care of children who lost their parents and they do have to change their primary life style and cope with secondary lives (Lives without/with one parent).
The system of children rearing differs from place to place due to different ideologies, traditions and culture.
To some areas it seems that child rearing start from when a mother is pregnant and the process continue until berth.
At KIWAKKUKI this project took over since 2003 when we started to support caregivers for their children
More bout 1500 families from Moshi Urban, Moshi Rural and Mwanga benefited from this project
A Situation Analysis of Early Childhood Development in Moshi District
• KIWAKKUKI conducted Situation Analysis in 2008.
• The main purpose was to collect and compile useful data needed to identify challenges and opportunities available in the districts especially in the location where KIWAKKUKI has ECD and other interventions.
• The data collected was about ECD challenges, Strengths and opportunities related to preparedness of all young children for successful schooling life, preparedness of schools and links and continuity between community, schools and policy environments to support preparedness of children and school
The district level needs assessment was guided by the three major objectives which are;
• To identify, analyze strengths, opportunities and challenges related to preparedness of young children for success in school and life.
– Assess if families and community members have the ability to provide necessary care and necessary information and socialization for young children
– Assess and establish types and quality mechanisms and support structures required by families, and communities to provide quality services to young children so that they can be ready for successful schooling
– Propose specific recommendations related to the challenges, strengths and opportunities related to preparedness of parents and communities to support all young children’s early success and transition to school.
• To identify and analyze the preparedness of schools for young children’s early success, covering key issues on access, quality, and curriculum and teaching-learning methodologies.
• To propose specific actions for different players based on the strengths, opportunities and challenges related to the links/relationships between family/community and service providers (health care facilities, schools, social work, judiciary etc)
Highlight specific implications for ECD partners strategic planning priorities and the Five Year Programme planning in relation to:-
• National situational analysis of ECD in Tanzania, focusing on the transition and relationships between home and school environments for children, families and communities.
• Levels of awareness of stakeholders on ECD and the overall benefits for children and policy advocacy needs.
• priority needs for capacity development and improvement of ECD service provision (quantity and quality)
• documentation of existing research & research priorities on ECD
Key findings from this study indicate that:About Children preparedness for successful schooling;
• Understanding of parents and care givers about children preparedness for successful schooling and life vary and mixed. It is influenced by a number of factors; these range from past experiences (they way families used to socialize and prepare young children for life), value system, economic realities, peer pressures to availability of quality and appropriate facilities for young children.
• Both communities and parents and care givers are aware of the need for young children to be prepared well so that they can be able to join and succeed in schools, They also indicate that young children have to go through different stage of growth that include language, cognitive, and motor milestones development.
• Overall, it is obvious that, ability of families to support and prepare young children depends on a number of factors ranging from socio-economic status of the family to ability to mitigate such hardships. That is to say, while parents are caregivers are struggling and working very hard to prepare their young children, they also need additional support to achieve their goals primarily from within the community and others as appropriate.
• Community members know that their children should attend school, but are unaware of how to help their children make the most of their education experience. Parents do not understand how other factors, such as health care, maintaining a nutritious and balanced diet, etc., can influence a child’s performance and concentration at school. Women are key in the care for young children including making sure that the socialization for all young children is taking place in a correct way that is consistency with the community expectations.
• Although majority of families reported that they can easily access a variety of services available including health, sanitation, transport etc, poor families still have inadequate or limited access to such resources including community services that are necessary to promote and support children's development and school readiness
Regarding schools preparedness for young children success. It was found that
• Both teachers and schools committees indicated that, in order for schools to be able to receive and prepare new children including young ones for lower classes, they need to have necessary services and facilities. Highly motivated teachers with adequate teaching facilities and overall good environments are what are needed
• In terms of access, the MMEM project has contributed a lot of the improved learning and teaching environment including books and other learning materials situation has improved tremendously such that the book ratio is almost getting to a situation whereby only three pupils are sharing one book except for a very few schools
• The quality of care and formal education arrangement is relatively below average. A few schools do not even meet minimum criteria to be considered safe especially for young children. Very few primary schools and day care centers have adequate supplies or trained teachers. The only requirement of a teacher is to be able to read and write, so often a community member lacking ECD training will be teaching the community’s youth. Due to lack of adequate supplies, such as paper, pens, toys, training tool kits etc students are unable to effectively learn and retain information
The study identified a number of strengths in relations to existing efforts and response for children, school preparedness for and existing linkages which include
Strength for children preparedness includes the following;
• Most families prioritize on nutrition and other basic requirements necessary for grown and development for young children.
• Presence of bi-laws empower village and ward authorities to follow and deal with households and caregivers who delays and frustrate eligible registration to pre and primary schools
• Strong services chain in the district; that is in both Mwika (rural) and Rau, almost all families have access to health and other services. There three referral hospitals and a variety of health facilities, improved water supply, improved urban sanitation and good transport
Strengths for preparedness of schools preparedness include the following
• That the structure for the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) is well established down to the community/village level that facilitate for schools to register and train eligible children
• Approved school curriculums are in place and implemented by all public schools and some private owned and managed schools.
• The cost of government school attendance is relative cheap and affordable compared to private schools, this provided enabling environment and influence care givers and communities to register and send their schools.
• There is strong collaboration between pre-schools and ECD centers and primary schools require that a prospective student for a primary school must have previously attended a preschool or ECD center. This promotes early education among children and shows the schools’ willingness to ensure ECD.
Links, continuity and relations between schools and families
• School committees, consisting of skilled professionals and parents, are the owners of the schools. Thus parents and care givers are involved in the schools management through schools committees’ discussions and deliberations.
• Given the history of Moshi district and the whole region of Kilimanjaro, parents and community are well above the normal expectations for education, commitments for children future success is high and press on parents and caregivers to ensure that children are registered for schooling when eligible
A number of challenges in relation to school and children preparedness include the following;
Challenges for preparedness of children include:
• Very few trained preschool teachers and the curriculum existing do match not link with teaching materials available
• Competing priorities at the household level, which makes ECD less important e.g.
• Families concentrate on fees and other requirements for older children attending secondary education because they know (and expect) for government to cater for primary education.
• Lack of clear mechanisms to regulate private owned ECD services and facilities
• Limited number of trained teachers in ECD services
Challenges for preparedness of schools include:
• The number of eligible children is greater than available facilities to cater for them.
• Limited number of trained teachers and services providers on ECD
• Quality of sanitation in primary schools especially in Mwika is generally poor and pose difficult and dangers for young children.
• Lack of clear mechanisms to regulate private owned schools and facilities, is likely to produce quality that do not comply to the national guidelines in terms of physical establishments and human resources
Among the major opportunities for improvement of ECD include;
• Private and FBO sector increasing interest and ambitions to invest in the expansion of the ECD services is one of the opportunities that open way for scaling up ECD services in Moshi.
• The Moshi district council is dedicated to improved ECD delivery. Over time, there are efforts to increase allocations on ECD coordination including enhancing inspection services and training for teachers
• With retirees who have accumulated experiences and skills, they can be used to support ECD activities in different ways including teaching and others especially in the rural areas.
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This study recommends a number of actions that can be used to improve care and education for young children. These actions require involvements of multiple partners and they include;
• District level actions for improvement include the following;
– Work with other partners i.e. NGOs to establish ways to facilitate and scale up special programs for children with special needs, orphans, and disabilities and from poor families such that they can as well access quality services and care.
– Mobilize communities and the private sector to invest in the improvement and expansion of the ECD services and facilities.
– Mobilize more resources from possible sources and allocate additional to ECD improvements including monitoring resources utilizations to make sure that they are not diverted to other areas.
– Collect and compile appropriate data required by lower levels to prepare and plan. Data about projections of children for pre and primary enrolment can be useful for schools.
– Training and on-job training for teachers especially those for centers and lower classes and increase allocation of trained and qualified teachers to all schools according to needs.
– Improve coordination of ECD especially at the district level between education and social welfare departments.
CSOs and NGOs type of support include the following;
• Advocate for more allocations of trained teachers for ECD and primary schools that should be allocated appropriately such that each schools is allocated what it is needed.
• Support village and ward leaders plan for and prioritize for children with special needs.
• Mobilize parents to continue supporting expansion and improvement of ECD activities in the district through self help arrangements including donations.
• Mobilize parents to participate and/or contribute for the improvements in school infrastructure especially; classrooms, teachers houses, water and sanitation.
The findings from this situation analysis present a number of opportunities and challenges specific for KIWAKKUKI and ECD partners. Implies among other the following for KIWAKKUKI strategic priorities in the five years;
• Caregivers and parents are motivated to prepare their schooling; they work very hard and invest in future success.
• Majority of children from poor/low income families will go to schools with poor physical infrastructures and untrained/less motivated teachers.
• HIV/AIDS is posing a serious challenge, continue to produce orphans, who are likely to miss education and other services
• Economic hardships and competing demands frustrates ambitions to offer care and for children-early learning
Contn….
• Increasing investments in early education i.e. centers and pre schools, increases chances and improves quality
• Many more untrained teachers to be used to fill the gap
• Participatory approaches to education are very limited, as teachers see themselves as the ones in control
• The home department for ECD at the district level- different departments deals with ECD in pieces
As far as ECD partners planning and priorities are concerned, they imply the following;
• Need for allocating more resources specific for ECD in the national budget. In regard to financial resources, a portion of the national budget needs to be directed towards the school systems because currently most preschools are private schools and families lacking the monetary means are left without a way to provide their children with education. All children need to have a way to attend primary schools, which means financial sponsoring from the government; such financial support should be channeled directly to MOEVT which needs to work and coordinate with other sector ministries i.e. MoHSW, PMO-RALG and MCDGC. This money must also be used to pay for the teachers’ salaries, training additional or ECD teachers or pay for on-job training for teachers already handling and teaching lower classes, buy training kits, and purchase medicine for the children (e.g. antiworm medication).
2. Advocate for a policy and guideline to support early childhood development in the country. The desired policy should clearly articulate roles, responsibilities, factors for success and additional research required to inform integrated and sustainable ECD in the Tanzania and risk mitigating measures.
3. Need to work with other sector ministries to address the gaps and chart out improvements necessary for ECD and related sectors in response to NIGPRS/MKUKUTA
4. Need for pushing for harmonized bi-laws and guidelines such that they do not create confusions and barriers rather contribute to improvements and establish accurate links between communities, schools and other services providers.
5. Need to advocate for national training strategy for ECD and primary school teachers so that to fill the gaps and improve the quality of teaching and support right away from pre through early primary school
Future ECD analysis should try to respond to the following questions;
• What is needed to prepare young children for success in school and life so as to respond to the family, community, ward and district expectations
• What does it mean for Family, Community, District and National level stakeholders to prepare schools that can support young children’s early success in school?
• Do we have a shared understanding about these issues – from family, community, District to national levels, and across different sectors?
• Are all young children well prepared for success in school and life
• How do young children themselves define preparedness for schools, what do they think about schools
• What do schools think about prepared children and what the success factors
• How district and national level players prepared to ensure that children are ready fir schools and schools are well prepared for children
• How can other stakeholders be involved in making sure that children are prepared for schools and schools are ready for children
• improved quality of care and early education at the family and community level and thereby ensure their readiness for school;
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schools’ improved readiness for supporting young children’s access to and success in school
• However without the indicators for the Operational target for Early Childhood, ‘Increase in the number of young children prepared for school and schools prepared ready to care for children’ (NSGRP Cluster II), there is little data and information forthcoming in relation to progress, or the specific challenges and opportunities at national, district and community levels.
Research from elsewhere regarding children readiness for schools indicates that a number of factors affect and determine type and quality of education and care young children end up receiving. These studies point on issues of poverty, changing socio-cultural contexts, and HIV/AIDS, negatively impact on families capacity to care for and support their children’s overall development in the early years (0 – 8 ) when support is most critical. In reality
– poor families are often struggling to meet their young children’s basic needs;
– because of women’s increasing work pressures, traditional child-care support structures are dwindling , and sibling care-givers are now attending school,
– families have limited or no access to alternative child-care support arrangements which means that young children are often left alone during the day;
• Thus children from poor families and others most vulnerable children including orphans are more likely to enter school
– Undernourished and in poor health
– With limited cognitive and language abilities
– Lacking self-confidence
– Having had no preparation for school culture, social routines and language
• (Overview by ADED & CGECCD, 2006 Biennale of Education in Africa, in Gabon)
• There is consensus, based on a wealth of international research that there is a number of interacting dimensions affect a child’s early learning capacity from birth, and his/her readiness to learn and succeed in school. These include; physical well-being (including nutrition) and motor development, social and emotional development, language development, approaches to learning and cognition and general knowledge,
• Early childhood is a period of remarkable brain development that lays the foundation for all later learning. For disadvantaged children however, their circumstances often lead to poor nutrition and health, limited stimulation and early education, the impact of which goes unnoticed until they either fail to enter school, or drop out early and fail to succeed. Early intervention through parenting education, child care and support programmes for these children, including those with disabilities can significantly “...offset disadvantage and inequality, especially for children from poor families”
In Tanzanian Context, we know that there are significant challenges:-
• One out of three children are under weight, with rural children more likely to be malnourished than urban children
• The number of orphans is estimated to be 2,093,000, which is equivalent to 12% of all children (Census 2002)
• more than 95% of young children lack access to early stimulation and social protection programmes, care facilities or non-fee-paying pre-schools and parental education (UNICEF 2007)
• there is little or no data on the informal care and education of young children in family and community contexts
• Children’s access the health services remains limited ‘…eight out of ten children in Tanzania (who die), die at home and six of them without any contact with formal health services’ (URT, 2005)
• There is a lack of clear data and about children’s progress and success in the early years of primary school, and yet international research indicates that early success with basic literacy and numeracy skills is vital for ongoing success (Abadzi, 2006);
• Lack of trained pre-primary teachers – of 147,591 teachers in pre-primary school (2006) 17% of them are certified teachers (UNICEF 2007).
• Overcrowded classes impede teachers in adopting more child-friendly teaching methodologies (PHDR 2007).
• the school enrolment rate is high but so is the drop-out rate where as; only 0.3% of enrolments are disabled children, standard 1 drop-out is a high, 10.6% (UNESCO, 2007, GMR – 2004 data) and 22% of children fail to complete primary school
• Insufficient integration of ECD issues into social sector policies and guidelines regarding health, food and nutrition, water and sanitation, lobour, gender and women’s development, community development, adult education and culture.
Children preparedness for success in schools and life
• Insert picture
• Women cannot manage their workload and child care on their own family support roles
• Repetition rate for 2007/2008- 9.7% for std I & II
• Drop out rate 2007/2008 -7.5% for std IV
• Children preparedness for school is directly linked to their development and learning through Active learning
• Children learn better by exploring their potential through playing
Schools preparedness to for supporting young children’s early success
• Insert picture
• The poor quality of primary schools is significantly denying every child’s right to success
• Many school environments lack basic infrastructure
• Distance from formal primary schools deprive most of the children chances to enter school at appropriate age
• Satellite schools could be a best solution for these type of community
Schools preparedness to for supporting young children’s early success
• Insert picture
• Children not meeting minimum learning standards by grade 3 and 4 are most likely to repeat and ultimately fail school
• Most of schools are not friendly for children with disabilities
• Teacher interaction with children enhances learning
Links,continuity and relationships between diverse care and education environments for young children.
• Schools tend to dominate non formal care and education programmes
• Teachers lack the capacity to work with parents and the communities as partners in children learning
• Many children living in remote areas do not encounter Swahili until they enter school which makes their transitions to school dificult.
Implications
• Conflicting polices at guidelines at local level(Council)
• Exclusive teacher training for early primary classes
• Comprensive young children programs to build on cultural contexts(Curricullum,knowledge and practice)
• Children with disability isolated
• Need for increased awareness on how critical the early years are in children’s development at all levels.
Its our turn Now!
What best can we do to change the situation of young children in our areas?
Results from ECD Advocacy Meetting at Village & Ward level
Acrording to REPOA Report
• A human dimension that challenge all adults are:-
– Children wants to be listened
– Children want to be taught by teachers who like children and who make effort
– Children need to be heard(URT,MPEE,2007)
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